The Unknown and Me
by Kano Kaneko
Summary: A teenager named Alexander is tired of his boring world filled with rules, laws, and just ordinary people. He'll soon discover theirs more then meets the eye. *Note* This is my first story and hope you guys enjoy it. Warning: Blood and gore will be heavily described, read at you're own risk.
1. Chapter 1 -Homeland-

***Authors Note***

 **Hey everyone and welcome to my first fanfic. I just wanted to let everyone know that I have been busy working on my future and other things at home. I'm happy to say this as I came from a long break, there have been a few PM's I've received from the community about my errors I've left behind for everyone. So I started revising almost every mistake in my fanfic, but it turned out alright. The PM's I have receive helped me in improving my skills as a writer. Thanks to everyone who have spotted the major errors and reading my story. I'll be doing Author Notes like this one in my future chapters to keep everyone up to date. Again, thank you everyone for reading my fanfic. Deacon out.**

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 **Chapter 1: Homeland**

Today is March, 24 20XX, this will be the starting mark of my journey into an unknown world waiting to be explored. I'm currently staring in the face of death itself, I sat in front of her desk while she marks my quiz from today. Today she wore a green turtleneck sweater, navy blue jeans, and black sandals. Don't know why we're in school. She's a brunette with a soft plush face, but those sharp brown glasses of hers hide a demon ready to bring death to the world, also along with those green eyes that finally locked with mine. This devil, this demon, this woman put her pen inside her pin case, then she casually adjusted her glasses and spoke.

"Alex…" She sighed in disappointment. "I'm sorry, but you didn't pass and you know what that means right?"

I suddenly felt all hope leave my soul. "Yeah" I answered defeated by my own efforts. "No year-end school trip, right?" I asked knowing the answer.

"Alexander Porsche what will I do with you and I'm really sorry for all the hard work you put into helping us fundraise a trip to Japan". She said in a sad tone. "But you're not doing any of the work I give you and you mock about in my class". She then handed me my test with a failure of thirty-six percent. "You should be one to tell your mother, not me."

Nothing could come out my mouth knowing I was a burden to her. "Maybe I should just go," I said sadly grabbing my school bag, which was heavy because of all the work I didn't do.

"Wait, Alex, I have a small deal we could work out here." She said digging into her bag. "Maybe you could have one more chance, but remember this." She pointed at me with determination in her eyes. "Just this one chance and that's it." She handed me a small pocket sized notepad.

"Uh… what do you mean by a deal?" I said a little annoyed.

"Well hear me out ok." She asked politely.

"Ok, I'm listening," I said while I took the same seat across from her desk.

"OK, look… if you write me a journal about your everyday life till the end of spring break, I could boost your mark and send a confirmation to you that you can proceed on the trip that you worked so hard for." She gladly clapped her hands with a bright smile on her face. "Oh and I also want every page filled to the brim with your thoughts, make a story out of it if you want to."

"Uh… yeah… how will this help me in English and why should I put every one of my glorious thoughts into this notepad?" I asked more annoyed knowing I'll be doing more work over my precious break.

"If you haven't heard from the other students gossiping about my sister working as a journalist, some of her friends who are also journalists, by the way, are having a little contest to get a well-detailed report on a teen's daily life." Her eyes then gazed towards me "So my sister asked me to help her with her small assignment by asking one my students to write about their lives, but I believe you're more than worthy of writing a more interesting tale about your life, as a teen that is."

"I don't know… you don't know me, what if I'm Pablo Escobar's right-hand man?" I joked.

"Was~ his right-hand man." She said brightly. "You know he's deceased right."

"I know, what I'm trying to say is that, what if your sister was disappointed in what I wrote," I said. I just want to go home and forget this now.

"Alex… she is expecting the unknown, she loves the unknown, and we all live in it, every single day." She said while getting off her seat. "So please, can you do this for me, and I'll let you on the trip, even boost your mark."

"Why can't you do it?" I asked hoping for an answer.

"Well... I have plans to go overseas to visit a few friends in Europe, and I'll be back in two weeks." She said packing her bags.

"I guess I'll think about it," I said sadly. Damn, I really don't want write in this stupid notepad for my whole break.

"Cheer up Alex, maybe you'll learn something." She said standing by the door that leads out of her classroom. "Alright Alex, I have to close up shop now." She said impatiently by tapping her heel against the floor.

"Oh yeah, sorry Miss Winters…" I said with a low sigh, I'm now standing outside her room.

"Good luck Alex!" She waved happily walking down the hall until she vanished by turning the corner towards the teachers reserved parking lot.

Great, just great, this is perfect, my break ruined because I failed a stupid quiz. Damn, only if I listened to Jackson when he offered to help me study. Why me, "but I believe you're more worthy of writing a more interesting tale about your life, as a teen that is." Yeah right, I ain't no writer or journalist. This is really a monkey on my back, no an ape; yeah, an ape. I thought to myself.

"Sweet~" I whispered to myself.

I finally made it to the train station that wasn't too far from my high school, because it was only a couple blocks away. There I met my best friend Jackson who was also waiting for the train. Jackson today wore a gray thin hoodie, but never wears the hood that came with it, he also wears brown cargo pants and white running shoes. Jackson was that kind of guy who would be there when you needed him to do something technical and hard to understand. Basically, this makes him that one guy to turn to when you need help homework. Jackson and I met when we were kids, we did everything together in middle school. In high school Jackson started getting pretty distant; it's probably because he's working towards his goal to be an engineer. We live only a few kilometers apart from each other, but I don't walk to his house; we play online by Gaming, chatting, and face timing. Jackson noticed me and put his IPod in his pocket.

"Hey, Alex, what took you forever man?" Jackson asked turning towards me.

"Oh, you know how Miss. Winters is; always checking on people's marks." I lied.

"Really… cause I seen you writing a test earlier when I forgot I had to water the plants in the biology class." Jackson said with his eyebrow cocked.

"Damn… you really are a bloodhound aren't you?" I joked knowing he's got me on the ropes.

"Well... that is my online Gamertag isn't it; so why did you have to stay late this time?" He said crossing his arms like a parent questioning her boy or girl if they got into a fight at school.

"Nah, it was just a quiz I had to redo; no biggy." I lied again while taking a seat on the bench.

I think Jackson got the hint that I failed the test, so he stayed silent. We sat at that beach only to hear the wind talking for a few minutes till the train arrived at the station.

Finally, the train made it to its next stop and flung the doors open. I was set free from the cylinder steel cage. As I made my goodbyes to Jackson I headed home knowing that my break has begun. Then the realization hit me when I put my hands in my pocket only to feel what I would describe a small notepad. Great... Already had forgotten about that deal I made with Miss Winters. I'm I really that lazy or just plain stupid? I got out the piece of cardboard and paper notepad to get a better look at it. It had a green a cover which I liked because it was my favorite color, it also had its brand name on the bottom left side of it. Just a regular ol' green notepad.

It took at least fifteen minutes from the train station to get my house by walking. I mostly live in the countryside alongside a few neighbors that live a few kilometers away from us. Jackson, however, has a bicycle hidden in the bushes near the train station located by a few trees, so he could get a faster ride home. That bicycle is pretty rad if I could say so for myself. I owned a bike once but it got stuck in a bog far from my house. I never told my dad what happened to it, I just give the answer that someone probably stole it.

As I approached a two-story building, I pondered why my dad never painted the building, maybe because he was getting old, that's what he told my mom and me, or probably he never could afford it; no that's not it. I never took the thought to why he never did it, maybe I should ask him someday, maybe I'll help him. As I got closer to the building I took a closer glimpse and noticed that only a gray pickup truck was in the driveway. Guess my mother is still at work huh. My dad works for a logging company and my mother works at a daycare in a small town in the country.

I finally made it through the screen door and proceeded towards the stairs to rest. I should really get a new bike. I hung up my jacket, put away my runners, and lazily went upstairs to my habitat. It was one of the places in the world where I could be me. I never really liked reality due to its many laws and rules in everyday society. Now people today are becoming non-unique to me. I opened the door to my sanctuary, at the same moment, a pop canister rolled under my bed. Damn, it's great to be back. I thought to myself as I flopped on my bed. I could just lay here all break and do nothing till school starts again. Or I could go see my peeps online by playing games together.

So I quickly got off my bed to traverse the hills of trash and dirty clothes to get to my console; when I finally made it to my Console to only find a yellow sticky on the top of it. What the hell? I took the yellow piece of paper only to read its contents. _Clean up your room_. I took a moment to observe my room. I guess cleaning at the start of spring break wouldn't hurt. Maybe I really should hang up that new poster I got from Kenneth. Kenneth is that kind of guy who wouldn't care what you say only if it's about his hobbies or interests. He never really shows up to class, even when he does attend a class he'll just play on his tablet all day long. But he's still a close friend to me, Jackson, and the rest of the crew.

"Perfect," I said looking at the poster I just hung up. Well looks like that's taken care of, now I can happily leave this reality and spend most of my days in paradise. Wait, I couldn't find my controller for my console while cleaning up my room. I quickly grew anxious to find my most prized possession. Damn where is It; maybe in my drawers no, behind the TV no, or probably under my bed no, and it was nowhere to be found. I sat in my office chair In front of my TV and console depressed knowing I won't be playing games anytime soon. Curious I took another look at the yellow sticky note. I noticed that the background of yellow paper was blackened, so I flipped the note around to see more writing.

 _PS: I took your gadget just in case; love mom._

XXX~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~XXX

March 25, 20XX, I woke up to an alarm ringing throughout my room. I slowly rose like a zombie that was disturbed from a long sleep. I lazily rubbed the crust from my eyelids to get a better picture of my now clean room. I continued to lazily slam my alarm clock only for to fall to the floor. Damn did I sleep yesterday? Now I was really pissed off, first I got a stupid assignment for my break, my mother took my controller, and now I wasted my first day of spring break. What could go more wrong? I really should go ask my mother for it before I throw a tantrum. Oh, wait. I took a quick look to my clock that was now upside down facing me. It's like seven o'clock; I shouldn't be a burden first thing the morning. Maybe my controller is in her purse I thought. With the determination of finding my controller, I got up from my bed.

I opened my door into the hallway to find my cat Mr. bonkers lying beside my door, he's a big fluffy gray and white cat. The name Mr. Bonkers came from my dad when he joked about him getting it on with all the cats around our old neighborhood, till we moved into the country a year later. I finally stepped over the fat fur ball, to proceeded to the lair of my parent's room which was down the hall near the stairs. After a while of some awesome ninja-like skills in retrieving the lost artifact that belongs to me is now in my hands. Somewhere in this purse of course. I brought it back to base for closer studying. Before I could dig in the bag's contents, a thundering noise roared in the hallway and stormed into my room. Mr. Bonkers even got up and ran downstairs from the storm that was about to hit.

"AH HA!" My mother roared at me. "I never thought I'd see the day that my own son would steal my purse."

"No, no, no, this is not what it looks like Mother; I was just trying to find my controller!" I explained, trying to come to an understanding with her. "You said that if I cleaned my room I could play my game and now look mother, it's clean like you asked on that yellow sticky."

"Oh… you were just trying to find your gadget…" She whispered to herself but I eventually heard her murmur.

The house fell silent after that sudden outburst of huge misunderstanding; my mother and I stood there waiting for one of us to break the ice. I got up to give back her purse and spoke in a nice clamming demeanor.

"It's okay mother, you just thought wrong about the situation and I'm sorry about taking your purse."

"No, it's my fault, I just woke up and seen you taking my purse, so the first thought I had was… well you know." She muttered in embarrassment. She then started scanning around my room, till she notices the poster on my wall. She put on a fake smile and commented. "Nice poster."

"Thanks…" I said softly, due to the poster showing a young woman in a skimpy maid outfit holding a weapon of some sorts.

"Where did you get it from?"

"Kenneth"

"Oh, that boy with the long hair?"

"Yeah, he bought it for me at one of his conventions."

"Oh, that was nice of him, well your room seems clean enough." She said walking back to her room.

That could have gone smoother, but I should have waited till she woke up and then asked her. I was too anxious and went ahead without thinking. Now that's all over here comes my controller. I suddenly got goosebumps all over. All break, my games and I are never gonna leave each other, I can't wait to play and talk to my friends. What's taking her so long? I thought. She must have hidden it on top of shelve in the closet, smart… maybe in the ventilation under their bed. Damn, she must have other places to hide stuff.

My mother finally came back with her hair groomed and her daycare uniform on. "Here you go, sweetie." She said handing me a plastic bag. "Oh, I won't be back until midnight."

"Why?" I asked.

"Well few of the staff at the Daycare are going out to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Daycare." She said attaching her earrings.

"But, who's gonna cook lunch and supper?" I asked knowing I'll have to cook my own meals.

"Alex... you're seventeen you can cook for yourself; there's pizza in the freezer and a TV dinner for your father."

"Ok, well... have fun at work and at the party."

"Let's hope it goes well…"

Finally, I heard the front door shut and I burst into joy now that I could play my game. I took the plastic bag and dug in it only to find my old handheld Game Dude from when I was only eight years old. I checked again in the plastic bag to find nothing else in its contents. What, no way, are you serious, and it's not here. I yelled in my head. I can't believe it my own mother played me like a fool. She's probably laughing right now in her van driving to work. So I quickly ran downstairs to phone her. I grabbed the phone off the counter. In seconds, I dialed her cell phone and waited.

 ** _Ring, Ring, Ring._**

XXX~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~XXX

"Nothing… she doesn't have a clue." I said laying on my bed.

"Well did you look around your room?" Kenneth asked.

"Yep, top to bottom."

"So you're telling me that your mom took away your old Game Dude because you didn't clean your room and you thought it was your controller for your console." He explained, "I'm I right…?"

"Yeah…" I trailed off.

"So… why did you call me again?" He asked.

"Well, I need to-" I was cut off.

"To borrow a controller from me huh."

"Come on man just one controller" I pleaded.

"Well, you do owe me and all you'll be doing is taking more from me."

"What! Owe you?" I thought for a while to what I could possibly owe him "Owe you what?"

"For that poster I gave you." He snickered.

I started laughing to myself and thought, Kenneth's pretty much always like this, but you really got to know him to like him.

"Okay, when do I come over?" I asked knowing he was joking.

"Oh… uh not today, sorry man I have my cousins over right now."

"So what! Who cares if they're over?" I argued.

"Well… there happens to be five of them and there like ten to twelve years old." He said. "They just so happen to love video games, so I'm gonna need all of my controllers. Copy Red October?" He asked again.

"Copy that Red Ranger…" I can't believe we still do this. I face palmed.

"Got to go, hostiles infiltrated the supply cabinet!" He yelled rushing off his cell phone.

"Over and out..." I sighed.

Damn… now what do I do? Here I am again on my bed doing nothing. Maybe I could try looking down stairs.

XXX~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~XXX

 _ **Ring, Ring, Ring**_

I was about to doze off to sleep due to the boredom I was experiencing, then my cell phone started ringing which made me jump. To my surprise it was Jackson. He hardly calls me, might as well hear what he wants. I pick up my cellphone to answer the call, It's not like I have anything else better to do.

"Yo! Hey, Alex you alright man?" Jackson said happily, maybe to happily…

"Uh yeah, yeah, I'm alright... how about you?" I asked.

"Forget about me, I heard from Red Ranger that you need a controller." He cut straight to the point.

"Oh, yeah I need one," I said sounding desperate, like a dog wanting his bone back. "Do you have one to spare?"

"Well… no, but I know a guy that could help you; he makes his own unique modded controllers."

"Oh man!" I yelled feeling energy shooting back into me. "That sounds awesome, where can I buy one of his so-called modded controllers?"

"Well… he doesn't sell them online, he sells them in person."

"What!? I'm not driving or taking a taxi for miles on end just to buy a controller!"

"No, no, no." He pleaded. "Luckily for us, he lives here in the city."

"Really…" I was astonished.

"Yeah, all we got to do is get on a train to the city and then taxi to his apartment."

"Wait, apartment?"

"Don't worry Kenneth is coming with us, so we'll be fine."

"Ok wait, hold on and just hold on let me sink in all this in first." There was silence between us for almost a minute, then eventually Jackson spoke out.

"… ah Well-" He was immediately cut off sadly.

"So you, Kenneth, and I are going to some apartment to buy modded controllers in a shady part of the city?" I asked trying to explain every detail of our mission. "Also are we going today?"

 **End of Chapter 1**


	2. Chapter 2 -Reunion-

***Updated***

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 **Chapter 2: Reunion**

The new spring air blew through the trees near the train station giving it a low moving vibe, it made me feel like I could float away with the breeze. Of course that would never happen. I sat on the bench waiting for two things: My friend Jackson and the train, I wonder who'll get here first. Kenneth is also gonna be joining us on this journey along with me and Jackson. Kenneth however lives in the city so he's probably waiting for us at the train station. Today I wore a camouflage hoodie with a white and black t-shirt that gave an image of a skull under the hoodie, bright blue jeans, and my white running shoes. They're pretty much worn out by now. I even brought my digital watch that my dad got me for Christmas and lastly my IPod.

There was now a disturbance under the cement flooring as if the world was vibrating. Looks like the train got here first, but I can't just leave Jackson behind. Defeated by the wait, I walked into the metal cylinder cage to find a seat. Before I knew it, Jackson came running from the bushes and dashed through the train's doors. He was wearing his same grey sweater, but this time he was wearing black jeans, and wearing his white running shoes. He was panting trying to gain his breath. I just noticed that he even brought a large duffel bag. It seemed to full and heavy to carry. Once he finally regained his composure he turned his head up to me and said.

"I'm ready to go." Just as he said this the train's doors closed behind him and made its travel to the city.

"I can't believe we're going today," I said. "also what's in the bag?"

"Oh, this? Just in case if we get into trouble." He said while sitting in a seat next to the window.

"What trouble?" I asked curious. "You mean a mugger?"

"Maybe, but we'll need this stuff while we're there."

"Okay… if a zombie outbreak happens I'm staying with you." I joked.

"Good one." He said rolling his eyes to the window.

I took a seat across from Jackson so I could also face the window. As I stared into the distance of many trees, livestock that wandered the valley, dirt roads that drew throughout the land, and the many of the farmland in countryside disappeared more and more. Later on they were replaced with Street lights, glass buildings, Vehicles cluttered the streets, and crowds of people. The city is a bountiful place for food, electronics, furniture, businesses and just about anything you need. On the other hand the city is a place where people love to make small talk, fake smiles and talk about their same days to each other hoping for change in the others story. They think they're so innocent, but they don't realize that everyone has bad side. People are just really annoying overall, I hate the city; noisy cars, noisy jets, noisy music, and noisy people. The people that I grew up with are my most trusting friends and allies. They don't put on fake smiles, they know my hobbies, they also feel comfortable around me, I feel safe around them, and we even play games together away from the rest of the world. It's already been an hour and here I'm going to the city to buy a single controller. Amazing…

The train finally made it to its destination, Jackson and I were first to the doors of the train, and I could see few people on the other side also waiting for the doors to pry open. The double doors slid open quickly and we casually passed the crowd of people to find a bench to wait for Kenneth. We eventually found a duel bench and sat there for a minute or two, till I turned my head to glance around my surroundings; instead to my surprise Kenneth was behind us, sitting on same dual bench as us. He then spoke.

"So the Company of Elite Special Operatives of Red Exodus have finally crossed paths with each other." Kenneth said with a General like tone.

"Corporal Red Knight, Reporting in, sir." Jackson said saluting Kenneth.

"At ease Red Knight, Red October, what's your status?" Kenneth asked me with his chest puffed out.

"Waiting for briefing, sir." I answered while playing along. "Are we going be briefed in our mission?"

"Negative, waiting for the arrival of our other comrades to join the rest of Red Exodus." Kenneth said.

"Sir, permission to speak freely?" I asked, I kept playing along.

"Negative!" He yelled to the point people were facing our way. "Just kidding, yeah Alex."

"You're an ass and who else are we waiting for?" I asked knowing who he was talking about.

"The other brothers in arms of course." Kenneth laughed.

"Oh, Sanchez and Roland are coming too.!" I said surprised. Why is everyone buying controllers?

"Yeah, didn't Jackson brief you on who was coming?" As he said this, we both stared at Jackson.

"Oh… well I, uh… I wanted to keep it a surprise, you know." Jackson muttered "I just wanted the whole company to spend this break together, you know, like we used too back then."

"So what's with the bag, are we going on a picnic?" Kenneth snickered.

"No, no, it's just in case if we need a bag to put our controllers in and other stuff."

"Were probably going camping," I said sarcastically "Oh shit, sorry guys, I forgot the marshmallows…"

"Does that mean we can't eat s'mores?" We both chuckled at Jackson.

"You guys are funny…" Jackson said in a serious tone. "Anyways, they should be here soon."

We waited for ten minutes by talking about new upcoming games. Kenneth was wearing a black hoodie with white stripes going along the sleeves, dark blue jeans, grey and black checkered runners. He had shaggy black hair, and his black scarf that he wore since eighth grade. Kenneth was the one who made up the Company Red Exodus, since grade five we kept to our rolls with six members. It really makes this reality less boring. Kenneth as Captain Red Ranger. I as First Lieutenant Red October. Roland also as Sergeant Red Shield. Jackson playing Corporal Red Knight. Sanchez under Private First Class, Red Wraith And finally Private Red Snow, as Rina. Together we make the Company of Elite Special Operatives, Red Exodus. However, later down the line Rina became distant to us after she graduated high school, she has a job, new friends, and lives with her best friend here in the city. Back then she was a tomboy with short hair who hung around with us, even though she was three grades ahead of us. now she wears dresses, grew out her hair, and she's basically a whole different person now. She was probably the only female friend I had. She loved to play video games with us, play outside with us, and pretend to be soldiers too with us. This cruel reality changes people, I think it's called growing up, but I blame the government forcing us to get a job and change our ways to what they want. Roland on the other hand says she ditched us to preserve her reputation as good employee, but what reputation did she have I retorted; she was a tomboy who played with boys younger than her.

"Hey!" I heard a familiar voice shout out towards us in the distance.

"Hey! Guys over here." Kenneth yelled back to two figures walking up the steps to the elevated section where we were sitting. My eyes widened to see Roland and Sanchez both waving at us.

Roland was wearing a camouflage cap and dog tags around his neck, he also wore a green T shirt, tan cargo pants with brown work boots. Sanchez wore a camouflage boonie, blue sunglasses, a white T shirt with green cargo pants and black hiking boots. They seem like military trainee soldiers. Roland and Sanchez are both only child's, but they've been with each other since Nursery and made amazing bond that would last a lifetime. If Roland had a brother it would be Sanchez. They both have the same hobbies, but this wasn't just any ordinary hobbies like watching anime, games, art, crafting, and sports. They've both indulged them selves into firearms and military life styles. Sanchez's family owns a private firing range, where customers buy passes to shoot some of the world's most unique and expensive weapons. They both started using the range when they were both thirteen and ever since then their skills have improved to a basic level of a military soldier. They really are brothers from different families. Roland soon applied for a job with Sanchez's family business, not surprisingly they happily hired him. Sanchez and Roland will both join the military when they're both twenty-three years old. So far they're both nineteen years old.

"Well, look at you guys," Jackson yelled over to them "you guys look like military soldiers!"

"Thanks!" Sanchez stood high above Jackson "and you still look like a nerd."

"Ah… finally were almost complete." Kenneth sighed

"Roland, is your name imprinted on those dog tags?" I asked Roland.

"Oh, yeah," Roland answered "I got them custom made."

"Damn… anyways are we going to get a taxi, maybe two of them?" I asked everyone.

"No need, I got us a ride there." Sanchez said. "Don't worry, way better than a taxi."

"Are you driving?" Kenneth asked "Because if I remember correctly you still don't have your drivers yet Sanchez."

All of us started following Sanchez and Roland back to whatever they had planned. They really grew up. Jackson's like what... Seventeen, Kenneth is eighteen, and I'm seventeen. I think I'm the youngest one. We made our way to a small parking lot with many dull vehicles. The one that stood out more was a grey van that was recently washed and still running with a figure in the driver seat. We then heard a familiar voice shout out from the van. I couldn't believe who I was looking at. Hell, who I'm about to talk to. She wore light blue sweater, white Khakis, brown high heels, and a dark purple beanie. Her figure was still short and she seemed formal. Like a regular everyday business person.

"Oh my god!" She screamed at us. "You guys look so different!"

"Is that… is she-" Jackson was cut off by Roland.

"Yes, that's Rina."

"Hey Rina, long time no see." Kenneth greeted her.

"Hi Rina, is this your van?" I asked.

"Oh, yeah it is," Rina answered proudly. "This is my only way around the city."

"So what are you doing here? Gonna drop us off at the place?" I asked Rina again.

"Yes and no; I'm also gonna buy a controller." After she said this, all of us stared at her except for Roland, Sanchez, and Kenneth who weren't that all surprised.

"Well... I want play with you guys again," Rina said twiddling her fingers. "and well I'm getting tired of this everyday boring routine."

"You want play games with us when because you were bored?" Jackson said crossing his arms.

"No, I just miss you guys, you know?" Rina said softly. "I want us to make new memories by playing games online with each other."

"Ok guys were wasting daylight," Sanchez ordered us. "We should go before he closes shop."

We all got into the van one by one. Rina was driving, Roland in the passenger seat, Sanchez was behind Rina looking to the window, me in the middle, Jackson beside me looking to the window, and Kenneth in the back laying on a bunch of bags. Rina's van was pretty neat and tidy. The smell was also new to me, her chairs had a seat covers which made it more comfortable to relax. Rina told us about her life as she made her way to our destination. She worked at a business that makes future technology, she told us about the things she seen planned for our future and the future of gaming. Which got me wanting to go forward in time to experience it. Rina is also thinking of getting a house of her own, but she'd have to work harder in keeping it. So far she stays at her friend's house helping her pay the rent.

"They say it came out today." Rina said.

"Really?" Kenneth said "Do they sell them in stores?"

"No, they're testing it on private customers who funded the project."

I leaned in towards Jackson and whispered to him "Does Rina work as a field tester or a regular secretary at the company?"

"I don't know, why?" Jackson Whispered back.

"How does she know all of their experiments and inventions?"

"Like I said, I don't know." Jackson shrugged his shoulders and turned to the window.

I tried thinking more about to myself and was immediately brought by back by Sanchez asking me a question.

"Alex how long has it been since you fired a rifle?"

"Um… I think about a week ago with my dad." I lied trying to sound cool.

"What, did guys go hunting or something?"

"Yeah a few deer."

"Nice, what kind of rifle did you use?"

"Oh a…" I thought to myself "a shotgun."

Sanchez gave me a stern look and stared at me.

"What?" I asked knowing he caught on to my lie.

"A shotgun, to shoot a deer really and a shotgun is a different class to a rifle." He put on his sunglasses again. "It must have hard to clean it with all of the pellets within it, oh and must have been close too."

"Ok, no it's been awhile since I shot a gun; it was probably the time when all of us took turns shooting at your family's range."

"Wow... that was like two years ago."

"Yeah... whatever, I'm gonna doze off." I crossed my arms and put my hood over my face.

I finally came back to my senses when the van stopped at an apartment complex. The building was at least four stories tall and had its own parking lot. The van was parked inside on the second floor of the parking lot, which was located by the back entrance of the apartment. I noticed the bags in the back of Rina's van were similar to Jackson's. As soon as I noticed this, both Roland and Sanchez took two out of the three bags in the back. Then eventually Kenneth grabbed the last one. It was to the point that everyone had a brown duffel bag except for me and Rina. Rina however looked puzzled, so I asked her.

"Hey Rina, why did everyone bring a duffel bag?"

"I don't know maybe they're buying a bunch of controllers?" she answered.

"Yeah, you know maybe they're up to something."

"Like what?" she paused to think, till she cupped both hands over her mouth and gasped. "Murder, a crime there trying to cover up!" She chuckled.

"No, not like that... it's just that I wasn't told to bring one and besides their bags are full of things."

"Looks like we're about to find out~." Rina sang in familiar voice; this was her catchphrase since she was fourteen.

We made our way into the back doors of the building, then quickly went past the checking desk and rode the elevator to the third floor of the apartment complex. While we were in the elevator I asked them.

"Hey guys what's in the anonymous duffel bags and why didn't you guy tell me to bring one?"

"Don't worry man, we prepared ourselves with-." Roland was cut off suddenly.

"Okay guys listen up ok, and listen good" Kenneth ordered Quickly Jackson, Roland, and Sanchez said "Ready!"

"Up to this point we call ourselves and our allies by their code names." He then turned towards Jackson. "For example, hey Red knight, you kiss ass."

"Screw you too Red Ranger…" Jackson said flipping off Kenneth

"Okay everyone got that." Kenneth said "Got it" Jackson saluted. "Roger" Roland saluted. "Copy that" Sanchez punched his fist together. "Alright boss" Rina said clapping her hands. "Yep" I raised my hand in the air.

The elevator doors opened, at that moment Kenneth said turning towards us. "This is a deal of a life time guys, don't let it pass."

 **End of Chapter 2**


	3. Chapter 3 -The Deal of a Lifetime-

***Updated***

* * *

 **Chapter 3: The deal of a Lifetime**

We walked down a spacious hallway passing many doors, but for some reason I had a sense that eyes of the many people living on this floor are examining us through the peep holes. We weren't invited to the party what so ever, we just walked into the entrance of ballroom feeling the stares jabbing us. I felt like leaving, but in order to do that, I had leave the boat my friends sailed on, there was no boat going back home. I'm stuck here with them through the end. I was awoken back to my nightmare of the world a currently lived in and was forced to look at a large window at the end of the hallway of doors, I seen structures that looked over the city, vehicles traveled in neat and orderly fashioned through the streets, crowds of people looking for a purpose, and planes happily flew others to distant lands. It would probably look more neat at night. Jackson tapped my shoulder and pointed to the door we were gonna enter, so I readied myself for what was coming. Roland knocked on the door hoping for an answer, we waited for any signs of a presence that resided on the other side of the door then, till Kenneth marched up to the door to speak.

"Where the Company of Elite Special Operatives, Red Exodus!" Kenneth ordered loudly. "Now open up or else we're taking our money back home with us!"

Then it fell silent for while until we heard footsteps walking towards the door. The voice on the other side asked.

"Captain Red Ranger?"

"Bravo~, alright open up before people get suspicious of a crowd outside your door." Kenneth ordered the unknown person again.

The door finally opened up to a tall, skinny figure gesturing us to come in. We accepted his proposal and entered to a pretty impressive large living room. The living room had many weird gadgets going off and on. Cords also spewed out of a huge, what looked like to be a make shift generator. A desk full of papers, documents, pictures of people, duel keyboards, triple monitors, and huge cabinet of; at this point I don't really know what I'm looking at, it's just a bunch high tech stuff throughout the room. The living room was basically a lab or something. However Roland and Kenneth were the only ones that seemed familiar to this place. Have they been here before? I though. Rina was in awe, Sanchez seemed anxious to whatever was coming, and Jackson was about to take a picture on his phone.

The tall man notice what Jackson was doing and grabbed his phone.

"Hey, what the hell dude!" Jackson yelled in anger for his baby.

"Hey!" The tall man yelled turning towards Kenneth "I thought I said, no cameras!"

"Okay, sorry I forgot to brief them on that" Kenneth tried negotiating with him. "Just give it to me, I'll make sure he doesn't do anything with it."

"Fine…" He said handing Jackson's phone to Kenneth.

The room now had an awkward atmosphere, the lighting in the room didn't help the situation at all. The only light there was illuminated through the blue curtains that covered an entire wall, which made the room dark blue. The tall man stared at us as if he was counting everyone. The tall man wore a white buttoned up t-shirt, black gym pants, and grey socks. He even wore black tint goggles, his hair was a buzzed cut, a white protective mask that covered his mouth and nose to keep air out. He suddenly went to his desk and opened a filing cabinet with a bunch of folders, he started skimming the folders for awhile and spoke out.

"Red Exodus, I'm I right?" Pulling a file from the cabinet.

"Yes, that's us." Roland answered crossing his arms.

He looked at us again. "Okay... good, you brought six people"

"Uh… why do need six of us?" I asked curiously.

"Well, it says here that they're going to be six of you here." He said examining the folder. "Going in as a group I see."

"Wait... what do you mean were going as a group?" Rina asked Roland. "I thought were here to buy controllers."

"Well… you see-" Roland was cut off.

"Wait, you didn't tell them what they came here for?" The tall man asked biting his lip.

"Red Ranger, explain yourself." I ordered Kenneth. Now this is unforgivable! I trusted him, he even brought me to one of the worst places in the world and here I am, in a lowlife's apartment doing something illegal! I think; who knows what he's up to! This guy probably doesn't even sell modded controllers! All in all, I probably came here for nothing.

"Ok, ok, Red Snow and Red October listen to me." He asked politely "To be honest I told everyone else what's about to go down and now is a good time to tell you."

Go down? Are we going to get into a fight or something? I took a deep breath to calm myself "Ok… shoot."

"Deacon, explain it to them." He asked the tall man.

"Okay finally, some introduction." The tall man said. "Hi, my name is Deacon and only Deacon."

"Deacon? that's a weird name." I said.

"Open up the closet behind you Red Shield." He pointed to a small closet behind him. "There should be some folding chairs for you guys to sit on." Everyone was given a black folding chair, except for Kenneth who sat in an office chair next to Deacon who also had one.

"Okay, everyone welcome to my home, slash lab, slash job; this must be your first time hearing this so please think about this okay." He started explaining. "I need everyone to have an open mind." He turned to grab a few documents from his desk. "There once was a crisis happening in Vancouver well over nine years ago, children and mostly teens ended up missing and everyone of them just vanished without a trace." He showed us a few newspapers that dated back nine years ago. "The missing person's rate kept rising and rising to the point the schools closed, police flooded the streets, and everyone was in state of fear."

"I heard about this." Rina blurted out. "The people who went missing were never found, no traces, no bodies were found, and they just vanished."

"Well, here is the reason." He said tossing me a folder. "The man's name is Vincent Herald, he was one of the smartest or probably the smartest person in the world." He said while I took a glimpse of a picture of a man in his thirties. "He made a breaking discovery in the history of science, he created device which made an individual travel from one world to another." I was shocked and in disbelief. "If they were to plug this device into a computer, game console, handheld devices, and basically everywhere else available." He said giving me a small simple USB. "This is one of his masterpieces, but now most of them lay dormant after he figured that people were tracking the cause to missing children, so he shut them all down with a unbreakable code; luckily I've cracked the code that kept these things offline."

"You mean we can leave this world, enter another world with these USB's?" I asked suddenly.

"Isn't that what I explained?" He sounded annoyed. "Anyway he lured test subjects by giving them these USB's which he modded himself to transport people into another world by force. He basically tricked them into buying these USB's and brought them into a new world." He knocked on his head. "Oh, the device right now can only send you to the world he made."

"He made a world?!" I asked even more surprised and wanting to go. "What kind of world is it?"

"Please let me finish, then I'll take your questions." He said turning to his computer. "When the first test subjects were transported, they couldn't come back until Vince gave them an objective to complete. However, Vince later disappeared all a sudden and left all his work behind." He paused "So all of the thirty six hundred, twenty-three subjects are still stuck in there till this day. The test subjects… well it's been nine years since then, so most of them must be adults by now; most of them probably defending themselves against the mobs." He spun around the face us. "Oh and before you ask; a mob is a being Vince integrated into his world, but due to human instincts, they are at war between mobs and humanity. The mobs look just like us, but every mob possess a unique feature and power; depends on its race of mob. Mobs have many different races, even a few of them are unknown to me." He spun around in his chair for some odd reason and sighed. "That world was amazing when me and Vince first seen it, but that all changed when he brought random people in for testing. Now it's full of old walls, old forts, ruins of old battlefields, trenches, and blood pasted across its land."

"Wait, you knew Vince in person?" Rina asked.

"Yes, I was the reason he made that world, I helped him develop most of the components for his USB's, but he later moved to Vancouver to continue production with a guy named Lance and later vanished."

"Okay… uh question?" Jackson raised his hand.

"Yes, I guess would be a good time questions…" Deacon sighed.

"These mobs you talk of; they sound as if they came from a game."

"What? A game, as in how?" He was now properly sitting facing Jackson waiting for an answer.

"Well… just so happens these mobs sound close to the ones from that old game, Minecraft."

"Minecraft?" Deacon was acted puzzled "You mean that game with no real ending to it."

"No, It had an ending but that's not the point here." Jackson used hand gestures to trying to simulate a man with a weapon. "Remember! Gain resources, mine in caves, build amazing building, and adventure in an endless world full of wonderful things to find."

"Wow…" He tried to keep it to himself "Not even Ten minutes and you've already figured out the world you'll be spending your time in."

"Wait… What, I was right!?" Jackson looked at us hoping one of us to answer him, then he turned to Deacon. "Were going into Minecraft for spring break!" Now he was standing about to cheer.

Before he could dance like a man that won the lottery, Kenneth put his hand on Jackson's shoulder and said "Okay… Deacon, they heard enough let's start this." Kenneth said impatiently.

"Yes, but I'm sorry guys plans changed." Deacon said a little worried.

"Changed? As in how?" Jackson asked trying to keep his smile.

"Well… uh you see most of my customers pay me and then they decide to never come back; so I'm upping the price on you and your friends…"

"How much?" Kenneth asked.

"Six thousand…"

"What!" Everyone yelled.

"We don't have that kind of money!" Jackson shouted. "We're giving you three thousand and you want more!"

"Listen!" He shouted back to all of us. "It's a new way of making money for me okay; every customer pays up five hundred and most of them never comes back."

"What do you mean they never comes back?" Sanchez asked him worried.

"I mean, almost everyone who travels to that world gets a small device; as small as a marker to bring them back home to our world, but most of them don't decide to ever come back…"

"Now everyone pays a thousand, but if they come back they get the other half back."

"So which means if we pay you six thousand, you'll give us back three thousand if we all come back?" Roland asked.

"Yes, thank for understanding Red Shield."

"I'm sorry, yet again we don't have that kind of money." Jackson said.

I know for one that I have more than two thousand in my account, but I need that for college my mother told me if I want a brighter future. I suddenly mentally slapped by self and thought, What are you saying to yourself! This is one in a lifetime offer to leave this world and live in a whole new one, without modern society ruining it. At this point I rather give everything that I have to leave this world, probably my left arm even! At this point my mind was made up and my body moved on it own towards Deacon.

"I got two thousand in my account." I blurted out. "Do you have one of those credit card swipes on your phone?

"Yes I do, I use it for business purposes." Deacon said happily.

"Alex… are you," Rina paused herself. "I mean Red October, are you really going to give all that just for this?"

"It's been my dream to move out of this crummy ass world." I said happily, ready to jump to the skies. "Now I have that chance, even in a game I used to play when I was five!"

"Red October!" Rina yelled "Think about what you're doing okay, remember what your gonna leave behind!" She marched up to me. "Think about what your parents, your friends, and your life here. They'll miss you!"

"Oh yeah! What about us, your friends that you left in the dark for a few years huh." I retorted. "Did you ever think how we felt after you stopped seeing us."

"At least I came back!" She shouted then she overlooked everyone and waited for someone to help her stop me. Instead she yelled. "Come on guys say something!"

"Sorry Red Snow…" Roland said sadly. "I'm also gonna be staying in that world."

"What!?" Rina said confused. "What about your dream job in the military?"

"Don't worry, I've been in that world before." Roland said "The people trapped in there really need a new military leader to guide them, right now there in a state of crisis and they need our help."

"I want to stay because Red Shield is staying." Sanchez bumped in on the conversation. "He told me all about and it sounds amazing, I can't just leave a bro."

"Come on Red Ranger not you too…" Rina asked Kenneth

"Sorry… this my choice and I'm going with the majority, which are my friends." Kenneth said sadly

"What about your families, they'll be devastated if you guys went missing and the police will get involved." Rina mumbled in tears. "I just met you guys again and you're already leaving me."

"To be honest, I've never liked this world and the people in it. Now look at you Red Snow, you've become one of them mindless people wanting everything to be normal and live in this boring routine until you realize your laying on your death bed, not knowing you've anytime in your life that you lived free. Now this is our chance to cut all of our losses, live free and I mean free! To a whole new world waiting to be explored by us!" I shouted throwing my hands in the air.

Rina calmly sat in on of the folding chairs with her head down, she even stopped functioning for a bit. Everyone of us stayed silent hearing to muffled cries of girl wanting her friends to stay along side her, instead she wiped her tears and snapped. She stood up, threw her purple beanie on the floor, dug in her pocket to only to grab her credit card and her eyes darted at me. "Well… if you guys are going..." She paused and started laughing. "I might as well join you guys on the fun, right?"

"Are you serious Red Snow!?" I was shocked, yet happy she was tagging along with us. "Red Snow, You actually got a life in this world and friends."

"Eh? Aren't you guys real my friends; you made the person who I am today." She said putting both arms over Roland, Jackson, and a big smile crossed her face. It kinda looked fake to me. "Besides I hate my job, my stubborn roommate, my parents give me to an orphanage when I was two, they didn't want me so why the hell should I stay in the world they abandoned me in, and lastly... I really do hate the city."

"I guess she's in Deacon, but the thing is we're only a thousand short." Kenneth said tucking his hand into his pockets. "Red October, Red Shield, Red Wraith, Red Knight, and even me, have given you all of our savings."

Then Rina knocked her credit card against his head. "I can fix that, here let me use your whatever it is that's on your phone."

"Okay here," Deacon gave Rina his phone to transfer money. "Okay, everyone get ready?"

He guided us to steel door that led to an bedroom with a two futuristic chairs that were hooked up to another computer in his bedroom, there was also a small purple pad that linked to the chairs, the pad had enough space to fit a few boxes and a make shift map huge on the opposite side of the room of Deacon's computer, the map display a world entirely different to ours. Deacon sat in front of his computer overlooking something, then he put in two USB flash drives into it. He ordered two of us to sit in the chairs.

"Okay, we're ready for the first two; who's going first?" Deacon asked. "Remember guys I'll pick your location on this computer, but it won't be too accurate."

Roland stood forward. "I'll go with Red Snow." Then Kenneth also stood forward. "I'll go with Red Knight." I put my hand on Sanchez's shoulder. "I guess it's just me and you man."

Sanchez nodded his head. "I guess Red Shield will go first, followed by us, and lastly Red Ranger."

"Roger that." Kenneth said.

"Everyone, put anything you want to bring with you on the small pad, the device was also made to bring anything in its vicinity, but I made it so it could only bring anything on this pad and the people on the chairs." Deacon warned us. "Remember try to stay together when you're in there. The mob's love to hunt newcomers down." He slapped his head "Oh yeah, before you guys go take this," he hand us a small booklet. "This has most of the information on the mobs, hints, guide lines and landmarks in the area." He slapped his head again but harder. "Oh damn it, one more thing." He also handed us a small device that was small like a marker with a red button on top, as if it was a detonator to a bomb. "This transporter will send you back, but it's battery powered so you guys only got two weeks in there, after the batteries die it's over." He said showing us the device. "The battery in this device are unique ones, also only made by me, so a regular battery wouldn't work. Which means you're stuck in there until you die or take someone else's is transporter, beware of your surroundings and stay together when you guys find each other. It's a whole new world…" As he said this Roland and Rina gathered their gear on the pad. They proceeded to sit into both chairs, the moment their hands rested on the armrests, they were locked into place by a metal strap.

"Is this gonna hurt?" Rina asked nervously, but Deacon was busy setting something on his computer and ignored her.

"Don't worry, you'll feel like you're floating in mid air." Roland reassured her.

It took them and their gear at least a minute to disappear into purple sparks that also eventually fated into nothing.

"Their gone…" Sanchez whispered to himself.

"Yeah I just seen them…" Jackson said. "Are you sure this is alright?"

"Their fine, I gave you guys the same location where you and Red Shield went before." Deacon told Kenneth while typing something on to his computer.

"Good, thanks." Kenneth said.

"So, who's next?" Deacon glared at us.

Both Sanchez and I marched forward, Sanchez loaded his duffel bag on to the pad and I took a seat in one of the chairs waiting for him. He was trembling, until he finally took a breath and gained his will to press on. He took a seat next me and did the sign of the cross on his body. There's no god where were going buddy. I thought to myself, our hands were suddenly held down by cold hard bars that eventually tightened around our wrists. We both waited for what was coming.

"Oh, no, no, no!" Deacon yelled holding his computer. "My computer just went down!"

"What, why!" Kenneth ran behind him.

I started to feel dizzy and sick, as if was about to puke. I can see both Kenneth and Deacon trying to turn on the machine. I glanced around the room to see Jackson looking down at purple cord he just tripped over.

"I'm getting them out of there!" Kenneth shout running to, he was immediately tackled by Deacon.

"No!" Deacon ordered. "You can't interrupt the process or else your arm or probably half of your body will be transported with them!"

"What's going to happen to them!?" Kenneth roared pushing Deacon off of him.

"They'll be fine…" Deacon paused suddenly. "They just don't have a location marked out."

I can't move, as if I have been paralyzed. Ah… now all I can see is purple particles flying across my face along with the background darkening.

"What do mean!?" Kenneth shouted. "You mean they'll be transported to a random location!?"

"Precisely!"

"Uh… guys, I think a tripped over this purple cord…" I heard Jackson's voice getting farther.

"Wha-" I couldn't make out what anyone was saying anymore.

Everything just went dark and fuzzy…

 **End of Chapter 3**


	4. Chapter 4 -Arrival-

**Chapter 4: Arrival**

I felt a cool breeze blew past me while heat radiated pasted my Camouflage hoodie, and soft grass made a bed around me. I finally woke up to see Sanchez beside me snoring like a bear. _As if I ever heard one_. His duffel bag was not too far away from us. I pushed all of my strength to get up, but my legs felt like a newborn bambi. So I sat against a tree which was beside us. There were trees, bushes, flowers, and plants all around us. The sky was blue as the ocean back at home…

"Home…" I whispered to myself

 _Wait… I'm in a whole new world now_. "I'm free at last!" I yelled charging my fists into the air.

"Shut up man…" Sanchez said still woozy after what just happened.

"Hey man get up!" I started shaking him "Were here man wake the hell up!"

His eyes quickly shot open and got up as fast as a meerkat poking his head out of his barrel to search for enemies.

He quickly tried to get up to get his bag, but failed to do so. His legs also give out and fell down.

"Damn… uhg man… why can't my legs work?" he asked worried

"I don't know?"

"Oh, I know" he dug in one of his pockets from his green cargo pants. "Let's try to read the booklet for information..."

I quickly dug in my front pocket from my hoodie only to find the green notepad Mrs. Winter gave me, a small transporter to bring us home, my IPod and finally the booklet. The booklet seemed like it was just printed off and stapled. On the front cover there was.

 _If you're reading this and your legs are not working, don't worry just wait a few minutes, they'll be back to normal in no time._

"Uh… shouldn't the rest of our body feel the same as our legs?" I asked

"Roland told me, in this world don't ask questions, and just roll with it." He answered

"Okay…" I rolled my eyes towards Sanchez's brown duffel bag.

"Hey why does everyone have the same brown duffel bag as Jackson?" I asked

"Jackson's bag?" He cocked his eyebrow at me "I gave everyone those brown duffel bags and the some supplies in them."

"What did you put in those duffel bags?"

He pointed towards the duffle bag with a big smile on his face. "Go find out…"

Once again I tried getting up, but this time I used the tree as support. As soon as I was standing with my legs still shaking like a bambi, I continued walking towards the brown duffel bag. Every step I took I got more control over my legs until I made to the brown bag. The brown duffel bag had a shiny copper zipper that felt cool to the touch. Before I opened the bag I took one last a glance at Sanchez for another conformation, but instead I got to gaze at him crawling towards me by his arms. He stopped to notice me and gave me a nod. _Here goes nothing_.

Inside the contents of the bag all I could see were clothes, pants, shirts, plastic bags of socks, detergent for washing clothes and other stuff. I was kind of disappointed that he only brought clothes. _I hoping for a weapon at least_. Sanchez then walked beside me with a large stick in both of his hands; _probably using it to support his legs._ He then kneeled on the opposite side of the bag and dumped everything out.

"All you brought were clothes?" I asked him still disappointed.

Then to my eyes three long green hard cases, a large grey container, a hatchet and large folded bags fell out of the duffel bag. He then proceeded to open the long green bag to unravel a black object. Sanchez had a wide smile on his face, but couldn't see his expression in his eyes due to the sunglasses he wears constantly. I just sat there watching him assemble bunch of objects together. He then said

"Hey Alex, do you know why I love British engineering."

"Because they make different stuff than America?" I answered

"That's a stupid answer…" He said while opening the large grey container "I believe myself to have relations to the British family to have a kink for weapons such as these."

"Oh~, it was a weapon you were talking about-" Then it hit me before I could say anymore. "Wait… does this mean you brought a firearm!"

"Yes, it's all in here!" He wasn't even paying any attention to my sudden outburst; just that container he finally got open. "Now we need a secure location to do this."

"Do what?" I asked him trying get his attention. "And did you really bring a gun?"

"I brought a few…" He closed the container and started putting everything back into his bag. "We still got a lot of light."

I didn't know what to think here at the moment, the only thing I could do was watch Sanchez pack his bag. _We really were in a different world_. I scanned our area to only see trees blocking our view. My legs gotten to feel again and that's one problem solved. There are still many more to solve.

"Hey Alex, you there dude." He asked while snapping his fingers in front of me. "We really need to find a place to camp out before we lose light."

"Oh, yeah… why can't we just camp here?" I asked not knowing the dangers of this world.

"Let's just go!" He ordered "In this world our days are numbered."

We both stood up ready to take on this new world and find our friends. _They must be really worried about us_. We could be anywhere in this world, probably on the other side of the world _. God… why did I scare myself by thinking of that._ We really could never see our friends again. I'll just be me and Sanchez throughout my remaining days on the new world. Then again were while armed. We'll be just fine… I believe?

We walked in the same direction for an hour and half now and all we came across were just trees, bushes, and flowers everywhere. Sanchez looked tired already, maybe because he was carrying his duffel bag full of clothes and firearms. I walked ahead of him so both of us had a field advantage in case anyone tries to attack us. _To be honest I just wanted to see what we're gonna find first_. We later came to a large clearing only to meet with a large rugged cliff face blocking our way. I told Sanchez that I'll patrolled the left side of the clearing; sadly to find nothing, but more trees.

"Red October…" I heard a distant call from the opposite end of the clearing to find Sanchez waving at me to come over.

I quickly ran over only to trip over a rock that was well hidden in the brush. I got up quickly to glance around me. "Good, nobody seen that."

I continued to make my way to where I last seen Sanchez only to find an entrance to a cave. The cave was located entering the cliff face and a few trees hid it from anyone looking above from atop the cliff. The cave was very dark, damp, and felt unreal over all. _Just a cave to appear out of nowhere, is this natural in this world or game I should think._ I walked closer to the cave to find Sanchez behind a tree holding a small object in his right hand. As he put his bag in a tree he carefully scanned the object in his hands. _That was definitely a gun_. He pulled out a magazine from his left pocket, only to for it to disappear into the gun. I just stood beside him overlooking the weapon in his hands, he then glanced to his left to see me peering at him.

"Oh, hey October." He said with a smirk on his face. "You know what this is?"

"A gun, no wait… uh… a pistol." I answered anxiously. _Why do I feel as if I'm in danger?_

"Wow, good answer." He said now turning towards me "Sorry but that's the wrong answer."

"I'll tell you what this is okay." Now pointing the weapon at me. "Right here in my right hand and pointing at you is the FN Five-Seven; better known as the Five-Seven."

"This pistol can hold up to thirty rounds within its magazine, but the standard issue can only hold up to twenty rounds; I just modified it to my pristine conditions."

"The rounds this small compact reaper use are 5.7x28mm rounds, making its firing range to medium and close quarters combat." He then pointed the weapon in many different directions. "The best of all, it's lightweight and easy to use for any beginner."

He then put two of hands forward as he was offering it to me. "Any beginner such as you." He then started laughing.

I didn't know what to think at the time, but I regret ever asking this question. "Uh… thanks for the weap- I mean Five-Seven, but why do we need weapons?"

He was about to offer it then backed away with a puzzled look on his face. He then observed the weapon in his hands, then stared at me.

"I'll tell you why." He then seated himself on the grass and leaned against a tree. "You better take seat bud, this is a story I got to tell you."

So I seated myself against a tree to get better comfort, because I feel this will be a good one. "Okay, shoot."

"Well... it was a few weeks back when both Roland and Kenneth went into this world just to see if it was real." He started tossing the gun around as if it was a toy. "They were in there for two days and already Roland got so much information about this world."

"What did he tell you?" I asked.

"Dude, just let me get to that part." He said annoyed "Okay… uh… oh yeah, Roland and Kenneth were both transported to a human colon-"

He paused and took a deep breath. "Well… the last human colony, but they were transported to a nearby outpost that was near the outskirts of the colony which was under siege by hostile mobs."

"I guess you could say it was a coincidence that they were transport to an outpost under siege, and other than that, they were the only ones armed with firearms." He looked to me. "Roland carried his favorite M-Two-Forty-Nine Light machine-"

"Okay I don't need weapon details just tell me why need these weapons." I cut him off.

"Wow, what a buzz kill… You know every firearm tells a story right?" He then tossed the weapon to me and I caught it. "Here, take care of it."

"So Roland and Kenneth both fought off mobs by holding them back with the roar of their weapons, and Roland's Light machine gun got them running back to where ever they came from."

"The people that were at the outpost defending it were all but amazed that just two people held of an attack from rogue mobs."

"Wait… Rouge Mobs?" I asked still holding the pistol in my hands. "Aren't all mobs under the same banner?"

"Roland told me that mobs in this game now function like us, they have their own territories, lands, forts, castles, and cities."

Sanchez explained to me basically mobs have their own ways of life. They have many factions to this world. The Anglian Empire, rule with pure steel and loyalty with their soldiers. The Cartulary of New Order is an empire that houses the most noble, rich, and intelligent mobs. They work in the art of magic and spell trickery. The Hawkish Order is a military controlled Kingdom full of thieves, crooks, and devious mobs. The military leaders are mostly traitors to the Anglian Empire. Lastly the Gravari Nation is large, but peaceful nation. They focus on crops, livestock, mining, logging, and etc. They trade with every empire and there way of life made them neutral to all empires. There are still many empires, but this all what Sanchez told me.

"So… yeah, basically rouge mobs are mobs that have abandon their Kingdoms to salvage their own ways of life." He then took another deep breath. "Damn… that was a mouth full."

"That's what she said." I jumped to the opportunity.

"Nice one…" He yawned

"Hold up… you haven't answered why we needed Firearms." I asked again

"Oh yeah… in short the humanity is on the brink of being pushed back to their graves, so we're here to bring Order to the humans who are trapped in this world a better life." He then made a fist. "Roland wants to increase our military strength, moral, and weaponry so we can finally push them back."

"You mean we're gonna raid, siege and kill innocent mobs?" I asked

"Hey!" Sanchez stood up "They attacked us first, they even started capturing and executing us."

"They even strung our people to the houses they raided and made us fear them." He dug in his pocket.

"They wanted this, Roland and Kenneth both agreed that we'll put a stop to this and bring the call to new order." He pulled out another firearm, but different to mine because he needed two hands to hold it. "Now we better go before night falls."

"Why?" I asked feeling my stomach ache.

"Oh my... you and your questions!" He shouted

"…" I was silent…

"Sorry… it just that it's been a long day and I have many questions myself, but I know you can't answer them all." He readied his firearm. "Let's just find shelter in that cave before night fall."

"And why you ask." Before we headed into the cave he looked back at me. "Mobs love to hunt at night." He then pushed down a long magazine on the top his firearm. "Okay, before we enter, do not make a sound just follow me and don't break that code until we both know it's clear."

Both I and Sanchez readied ourselves on opposite sides of the dark cave, waiting for one thing. A presence, an indication that someone or something was inside there. We both waited for at least two minutes or so until I noticed the cave's entrance had gotten darker. _Crap, we're losing sunlight_. Sanchez was looking at me and I gave him a nod; _I sign that we have to act fast or we'll be left in the dark._ Seconds later Sanchez brought out a small flashlight and shot the darkness away. _It was one hell of flashlight, probably a miniature spotlight?_ We both made our way into the mouth of the cave to find a one narrow tunnel heading up to the left, another wide but short tunnel that lead to open area of the cave to our right. Sanchez was the one who choose to go right and found a large clearing. The ceiling of the cave had many stone stakes pointing at us. The walls were mostly covered in moss and dripping sounds echoed throughout the clearing

"Damn, this could work as a temporary base of operations." Sanchez broke code and shined his light everywhere. "This place has a lot of room, a fire pit won't be a bad Idea, and those stakes above us look sturdy."

"We should explore the rest of the cave first before camping here tonight." I also broke code and asked him. Or should we go get your bag first?"

"The bag is priority, we should hurry." He started walking towards the entrance of tunnel that lead the cave's entrance, so I followed suit.

The moment we arrived outside it was almost pitch black. Sanchez then kneeled down and turned off his flashlight. He started crouching towards where he left his bag in a tree. I stayed at the entrance waiting for him. The moonlight helped me see what he was doing, but peering further into the tree line. _I can't see a goddamn thing_. I stood there at the cave entrance waiting for Sanchez, until I heard a large thump as if someone has fallen. Then in an instant Sanchez came running from behind the tree where he hid his bag and hid behind me.

He was breathing heavily and whispered "Good, no one did- didn't see that…" he later gained his breath

"..." I knew what happened...

"Let's go, I got everything." He whisper to me. "I also brought some twigs and loose tall grass."

As soon we were halfway through the cave, Sanchez lit his torch then continued toward our new home. The cave was pretty sketchy as hell, it felt the whole cave could crumble and crush us at any second. We soon entered our bat cave; Sanchez quickly handed me the torch to give him some light to start the fire pit. Sanchez has taken many classes, exercises, and trips camping to learn how to survive in the wilderness. He and Roland even went to summer camp just to learn how to survive, but Sanchez told me he didn't learn anything new. The camp counselor was a hippy and taught his classes to respect the wild and what not. _Summer while wasted I have say_. It took Sanchez at least five minutes to start a fire, and during those five minutes all he said was curse words and god's name trying to start a fire. He didn't bring a lighter so it took him a while, but he got it.

Few minutes of tending to the fire Sanchez decided to get raw wood from outside, but I knew that would be a bad idea. Sanchez dug into his bag and pulled out a hatchet.

"This should only take a second." Sanchez said this as he was testing its grip.

Then it hit me, I remember around five years ago that in game collecting resources was fast, simple, and easy. Then I quickly pulled out the handbook Deacon gave us if need we information. I flipped past a few pages to find references to the old game Minecraft. _In this world gathering, mining,_ _building is a lot easier and simpler to our world._ So this must be true, were not in just any world, but a in a game called Minecraft.

"Hey Alex, you coming to spot me?" He asked me still trying to get a grip on to the hatchet. _Probably pretending as if he's slaying countless of enemies._

"Oh, yeah." I answered. _Wait… aren't we supposed to call ourselves by our code names?_

I got up from a flat rock that I could call a chair to, then met up with Sanchez. "Damn it Sanchez… code-"

I was immediately cut off. "Shh, code names man."

 _Uhg, whatever…_

We both came up with a plan to get a few logs without getting spotted. Basically the old, _get in get out situation._ I will chop the trees and Sanchez will watch my back. He's a better shot than me and I'll quickly chop a few trees. This will work, but the bad thing is that it's too dark, so we're gonna stay close to each other. We then proceeded to the entrance of the cave to find it still dark outside. We both ran to the nearest tree, I made sure Sanchez was at a good distance to start cutting and I started chopping the tree. In a few seconds to my surprise the trunk of the was missing, no log came from it, just a popping sound, and the upper top the tree was still floating. _That's a first…_

"Hey are you done?" Sanchez whispered

"Yeah…, but I got nothing from it." I whispered back.

"Don't worry, just keep chopping, I brief you later at base."

I continued to chop from tree to tree for ten minutes, the Sanchez pinched my back to signal me to head back. We ran to the entrance and waited in case if we were being followed. Again we waited for two minutes then headed back to our base. Both me and Sanchez sat round the campfire that was slowly dying. Sanchez told me that I needed to put both hands forward like as if I was one of those cops in the middle of an intersection telling someone to stop. This brought up a transparent screen that I've seen before long ago. What I remember was this is where I would craft things, my armor, and the inventory which had a green notepad, [Return] transporter, my IPod, two and half stacks of oak wood, maglite flashlight and lastly a FN Five-Seven.

"Okay, now drag that half stack of wood off your inventory." He asked me

"Okay like this?" I asked, but that half stack of wood flew right into the fire pit and burned immediately…

"Okay… try aga-" He was cut off the due the innocent looking little fire finally blew up into a huge bonfire you would see during a celebration or a festival. We both stood on opposite sides of the scorching flame and we were both in awe. The flame was so great, it lit up the whole section of the cave that we were staying in. I walked around the bonfire only to find Sanchez missing, only to see a figure coming from the dark tunnel that lead towards the cave's entrance. In an instant I aimed my firearm at the figure only for it be Sanchez coming from the shadows of the tunnel with his hands up.

"Woah… Dude calm down…" Sanchez said looking down at his feet. "It's just me, I was just checking to see if your bonfire was bright enough to see from outside."

I holstered my firearm and said. "Sorry man, I thought something happened…" Embarrassed by actions, I did a face palm while shaking my head.

"Hey, it's alright." He walked passed me. "You know it could have been worse…"

"Yeah… I could have shot you."

"No… you would have missed and made a lot of noise, which would bring us a lot of attention."

I chuckled. "Yeah, that would also be bad…" _I think he's heading to his bag?_

"Alright, enough of this guilt stuff and come help me with this bag." I turned towards him, to find him sitting and arranging his supplies around him.

"Yeah sure, I need something to do anyways." I sat in front of him "What can I do?"

"Well… I guess fold our clothes, oh and pick one of two hard cases." He pointed to two cases stacked on one another. "I got mine next to me, you should decide what you want to use after you're done folding those clothes."

"Damn you really brought a bunch."

"Yeah…" He said looking at the handbook. "Hey Alex… do you remember this game Minecraft at all?"

"I kinda do, but it's hazy." I answered. _Code names god dammit._ "It's been like years since I played this."

"Yeah, didn't we play it together at all?"

"No, I stopped playing this around when I was five or six, then I met you and Roland in grade four."

"Damn… I just didn't remember this game being so… real." He stopped "Aren't we supposed to be blocky people, also isn't the grass, trees, and even this cave supposed to be blocky as well?"

 _I never really thought of that before_. "Also isn't there abundance of animals to find right, but we didn't see a single one on our way here!" This is really getting me going. "Since when can we make huge bonfires such as these, even if we just thrown wood into it."

"This is freaking me out." He was now looking to the ceiling. "Why and how does this game make any sense right now?" He jump to his feet and picked up a loose pebble on the ground. "Look at this! This feel just like any rock at our world! He began to aim for the bonfire. "Can this pebble even break or damage things if I throw it?"

The pebble disappeared leaving bright sparks to rise into the ceiling only to vanish. I sat there wondering if I was having fun or frightened. _This world is just like ours; this isn't Minecraft. Something more. Now that I think about it, the mobs that Deacon had mentioned are just like us. Does this mean they have an appearance of a normal human? Or a spider from Minecraft, will look like the ones we have at our world. Monstrous gigantic spider is probably the worst thing I could think of…_

"Hey Sanchez, do you remember the mob's that live in this game?" I asked

"No… nothing really comes to mind and please stick to code names..." He sat down in front of me again, he then took a moment to regain himself back together. "Sorry, that wasn't professional, you were saying."

"You alright?" I asked.

"Yeah… you said something about the mobs?" He got back to organizing his supplies.

"The mobs, do you know the variants?" I asked again.

"Skeletons, Zombies, spiders, and basically all I know."

"Now, if you remember what Deacon said, they look just like us."

"Yeah, I forgot to tell you." He then pulled out two large bags from his bag that were folded up in plastic bags. "Roland's encounter at Outpost Norman, was like being dropped into D-Day, but he had the gun in the bunkers." He even pulled out a clump of other things wrapped in plastic. "After the battle, he and the local's analyzed the dead." He also got out a small pocket knife from his cargo pants. "The local's taught him the differences between each mob, even the how to defend from each one, and lastly how they govern between factions." He starts cutting the bags carefully through the plastic.

From what Sanchez really knows about the mobs that reside in this world they look like humans, even speak English, eat, sleep, think, and have emotions like us. The game Minecraft from what I remembered didn't have these features into it, also I believe the last update was well over eleven years ago. The mobs do have their differences such as skeletons don't look like an actual skeleton, but just a skinny person, zombies are also human too. _Even though their zombies_. They look the average Joe who would hang out in a gym. Spiders are not this eight legged crawling beast, they look human but merely are smaller to some extent. They may be someone of greatest climbers in this world. They can even climb up a steep wall without any effort, as a child they even begin claiming around eight to ten years old.

That's basically all the mobs Sanchez had heard of. Roland however gained this information to the mobs he and Kenneth have slain at their encounter at the outpost. Roland even told Sanchez how they fight in battle. From what Roland witnessed, skeletons are lightweight on the battlefield, they use long bows, short bows, crossbows, and javelins to get a distance advantage. Zombies rely on their brute strength and heavy armor. They tend to use great shields, spears, long swords to great swords, war hammers, and basically any huge blunt or sharp weapon the would sever us in half. Spiders however are a different story, due to their small frame and climbing skills; they are ghosts on the battlefield. The rest... are unknown to us at the moment.

"Wow…" I said in awe. "So now mobs are basically just like us huh?"

"Yeah…" Sanchez said lying down tossing his firearm around.

"How?" I answered hoping a good answer

"..." Sanchez stopped tossing his firearm into the air. "That's the question that has been on my mind; how did he do this, what's his face… Vince. It just bugs me by the amount of work he put into this project and he ditches it!"

"Sanchez calm down…" I said to him "Let's just get our stuff together."

"Yeah… yeah ok, you done with those clothes?" _He really is trying not to snap_. "If you are; take half of everything that pile over there." Surprisingly, both me and Sanchez are the same height, so we basically can fit both our clothes.

"Yeah… Can I take a look at those cases?" I asked wondering what's in them.

"Oh, pick your poison." He insisted while sliding two cases towards me.-

The first case above read. _XT-97 AR_. _What the hell is XT something?_ I quickly moved the case above the other one at the bottom to the side, so I have both cases side by side. The other case read. _Vektor CR-21_. _Wow… another one I have now idea about, also are these firearms_? I looked to Sanchez unfolding a large backpack from one of the plastic bags. _That's a large bag… uhg, which one do I choose_? I quickly read more on front of the case. _XT-97 AR, Origin: Republic of China, Caliber: 9X19 Parabellum or 5.56X45mm NATO rounds, folding and retractable stock, AR-332 X3 Scope, three additional 5.56x45 NATO Magazines and two 9X19 Parabellum Magazines._ Lastly… the _Vektor CR-21, Place of Origin: South Africa, Caliber: 5.56x45mm NATO, Standard 1X Optical sight, [BW3040] Non-Reflex Silencer and four 5.56X45 NATO Magazines._ This was definitely a big decision, they both sound like capable weapons I would get used to.

"Hey Sanchez, what do you think I should use?" I asked him. "Both of these weapons sounds good to use."

"Uhg… ok, how do like to cope with a situation?" He asked me, while assembling a weapon he got from his private case.

"I guess… try not get much attention?" _I like the old strategy's I would use while playing games, the get in get out situation._

"Now your talking like the silent type." He turned towards me. "Remember, in this world were trying to survive out here, so try not to make a lot of noise that would bring us attention."

"No sound, just a bump in the night… got it." _I guess I'm choosing the Vektor…_ "I'll take the Vektor."

"Great choice… Now choose if you want to load the magazines or assemble the actual weapon?" He was still assembling his firearm. "Either way both are a pain in the ass to do."

"Well, I guess I'll load the magazines." I sat there scanning for the ammunition. "Where is the ammo?"

"Near the duffel bag, that grey container." He pointed towards large grey container. "The code to the padlock is Twenty-three left, twelve right, and seven left."

I walked towards the grey container with a large metal padlock with those combinations. Let's see twenty-three left, okay now twelve right, and finally seven left. The lock quickly fell towards the ground and the lid of the container was slowly opening by itself. As soon the light from the bonfire shined into the container, the contents were four green metal military issue ammunition boxes and a large clump of plastic next to them. Two out of the four held Nine hundred 5.56X45mm NATO rounds each, the other had thousand hundred 5.7x28mm rounds, and the last one held One thousand, two hundred 9X19 Parabellum rounds. _This will last us awhile…_ I curiously picked up the clump of plastic only to discover the contents were at least seven more 5.56X45mm NATO magazines, five more 9X19 Parabellum magazines, and two different types of magazines for the same even had the even amount of mags stored into the container. _Why would you need two different mags for the same 5.7x28mm rounds?_

'Hey Sanchez, how come there's two different mags for the same round?" I asked while sorting the magazines.

"Oh, you're talking about the parabellum rounds right?" He asked holding an almost finished weapon in front of him. "Yeah… one of them are for the XT-97 AR and the others are for mine."

"You mean the one you're building now?" I now wondering how many weapons he brought.

"No, this one takes 5.56X45mm, my side arm takes the parabellum rounds." He said showing me the same weapon I seen earlier when we entered the cave. "You should start with those 5.56X45mm cartilages first they are our main source."

"So why did you bring extra firearm?" I asked unwrapping the extra mags. "I got this sidearm and a primary; you also have an sidearm and a primary... right?"

Just in case we find someone, probably you lost your weapon or broke it, maybe we were captured and I escaped back to our base to find our spare weapon." I then heard a loud noise as if someone slammed to rocks together. "Don't worry about that okay, when I have this baby loaded we'll be just fine."

"Woah… what is that?" I asked looking at firearm that had strange design, frame, and above else, the magazine was location in the stock of the weapon.

"Remember when I said I have kink for weapons such as these, well this here is the finest British engineering; The L85, but a different variant to one." He then stood high with his chin up, held his weapon against his chest." I bring you the L86A2 Light support machine gun, this weapon holds up to one hundred to thirty rounds, never once failed me when I needed it most on the firing range or beating my old man in bets, also one of the first weapons I have ever fired in my lifetime, can also fire from mid to long range combat, and lastly British soldiers prefer this weapon more than their teacups."

 _That's racist…_ "Damn… British engineering hun."

"Oh yeah, I even brought a few mods that would easily increase it overall effectiveness in any situation."

 _Wait… did what did he say_? I stopped laying every magazine into there perific group.

"Let it be long range, I'll just increase the scope's field of vision and if I would have to go silent I would-"

"That's it!" I yelled. "Mods; that's how he made this game look like what it is today, this version of Minecraft is his version. He modded the mobs, the climate, the physics, and hell even how everything feels so realistic." _This was it, that's how he did it, finally an answer that I have a lead on, and now I know he didn't make this world from scratch or even copied the game Minecraft._

Sanchez sat there overlooking his weapon. "Mods… so this is Minecraft, but with a bunch of mods."

"That's it I think, Vince probably made these mods himself and then made a way for us to be transported here." _This was my believe and I'll stick to it_.

"So, you really think we are in a modded version of Minecraft." Sanchez then sat down and grabbed my weapon case. "If so, that's a relieve because I thought we were on a different planet inhabited by people in the castle age." He then had a big smile on his face. "Well… shit, that's damn good theory… dude how did you come up with that?"

"Well when you said, I got many mods for this weapon; It just made me remember when I was five, my cousin downloaded mods for minecraft and the mods he had made the game more real." I was now pacing in circles trying to picture what happened back then.

"Damn… you know what?" He asked me.

"What?" I answered. _What could he know_?

"I thought of you as the smart ass character, but today you made yourself more of an smart ass." He chuckled. "Now please start organizing and loading those magazines."

"Oh, thanks I guess." At Least he's back to himself again. "Hey can you teach me to fill these mags?"

"Yeah, sure it's easy and all but very time consuming." He then scooted over to demonstrate.

The first night in Minecraft was pretty easy if I say so myself, but deep down I knew something big was coming. What's happening to the rest of the guys? How far are we from them? We'll we ever see them again? These questions ran into my mind while I loaded these mags; Sanchez was done assembling every weapon in our arsenal and now asleep in a sleeping bag he brought. Mine was with Jackson... I do glance towards the tunnel that lead towards the cave's entrance now and then. With this pistol by my side I'm sure I'll be able to protect my comrade, he's basically all I got left and if all goes to hell; we can just teleport back home. This world really does also feels more alive than ours, maybe I'll just stay here forever. I'm just at the halfway point into loading the rest of the mags, need something to keep me awake… I quickly dug in my pocket to find my IPod still waiting for me to use him. So I happily plugged the headphones into my ear and listed to, Johnny Cash- God's gonna cut you down… and continued through the night.

 **End of Chapter 4**


	5. Chapter 5 -A Rude Awakening-

**Chapter 5: A Rude Awakening**

March 26, 20XX, the start of my second day in this new world. I felt a pulsing sore stabbing my back, time and time again. My eyes quickly shot open to a dark ceiling, I scanned the cave to only see light that illuminated from tunnel exit. Before I could get up and ready myself for the day, a bright light shined into my face and familiar voice spoke out.

"Oh, sorry dude I thought you were still sleeping." He shined the light source towards the ceiling giving the cave little light for me to navigate. "You slept for a good while, so I went out and did some reconnaissance around our AO, and found something pretty interesting."

"I don't understand what you said, all I heard was you finding something interesting." I said weakly while rubbing the crust from my eyes. ***Yawn*** "Damn… what time is it?"

"Let's see uh… close to thirteen, hundred hours." He looked at two watches he had on his right arm.

"Oh, come on man…" I was just getting up. "I just woke up and I can't understand military talk."

"Sorry, almost one a clock PM and the sun is at its highest peak, you should get geared up and ready to rock."

"Okay, just give me five minutes…" I lazily walk towards my pile of clothes.

The fire that brightened our cave, also slash base has died it would seem, so it looks like Sanchez's torch is basically lighting up the room while I find a good change of clothes. I found a good looking dark green and brown checkered buttoned up shirt, put on some tan cargo pants because they seemed comfortable to wear, I also wore my same white running shoes, because Sanchez told me Jackson had my hiking boots for me; so I wore those instead and Lastly my camouflage hoodie. Basically all I had to change into that day. Sanchez handed me a small leather like belt and binoculars.

"This should come in handy when you need to some free hands." Sanchez said wrapping a belt around waist and shoulders

"Oh~ this is a holster, got it." I immediately started equipping it and later admire myself. "Damn… I must look like a bounty hunter or something like that."

Moments later, Sanchez was leaning against a wall near the entrance to our base.

"Hey I just thought of something." He tilted his head towards me.

"Like what?" I asked. "A good breakfast."

"Yeah, maybe we should hunt first before exploring that place I found North-East of here."

"I guess we should at have a good amount of food before we go off adventuring."

"But during my surveillance around our AO, I've found no animals around our area for some reason."

"So what, did they all just travel to North to meet with their families?" Smirking at him, while standing near the entrance.

"No, they would have told us or left a note." He picked up his firearm and holstered it. "Seriously… there's not a single animal I've seen in this world at all."

"Well this might take a bit of time before we can eat; maybe a few minutes, hours, or even days."

"Come on man, it'll probably be sometime, but not days." He punched my shoulder. "I hunt and if this game make animals also have the same senses back at home, this will be a cakewalk."

"Well, I don't know how to hunt or precisely fire at anything." I glanced towards the messy pile of roughly folded clothes, weapon cases, plastic wrap, and the mess that we call our base. "I could stay here and tidy up, you'll happily go hunting without anybody weighing you down."

"Dude… no, we have to stick together at all times." Shaking his head. "Remember the rule, stick together at all times."

"We need someone to guard our base!" I retorted. "You are very skilled, you don't need me by your side, and I'll just weigh you down if I came with you."

"It's not like that, we were all supposed to break up into two teams of three!" He shouted at me. "You were supposed to be with Kenneth and Jackson; I was gonna be with Roland and Rina. Then everything went to shit pretty quickly, now I have to take care of you."

"Ok, ok…" I said softly. "If it makes you feel better I'll come with you. I'll just fall behind and observe from a good distance, maybe I'll learn a thing or two about hunting."

"No, no, you're right… we need someone to guard our establishment and were only a team of two."

"If you insist, but remember Sanchez, some rules have to be broken buddy in order for us to survive." I walked over to the mess we made. "Just to make sure you're okay with this, I'll ask again." I crossed my arms. "Are we going hunting or am I staying here and playing house maid?"

"I'll go, you stay here and look pretty." He chuckled and walked towards the entrance. "One more thing, if I don't come back in three hours, come looking for me."

"Okay? Where do I look first?" I asked a little worried.

"North-West of here, gonna be taking the tunnel going up from our base and please keep your eyes open for any hostile insurgents." He then started strolling out of view as he cut the corner towards the cave's main entrance.

"Well, I guess I should start cleaning…"

It's already been an hour and he hasn't returned yet. I was done cleaning about ten minutes ago and now I'm really bored just waiting here. I made use of the small flashlight Sanchez left behind to help navigate in our base. _Maybe I should play a few tunes or get more use to my arsenal of firearms?_ Instead I grabbed the small stapled booklet Deacon handed us in case if we needed info. I sat cross legged with my firearm to my right and my back leaned against the newly folded pile of clothes. I opened the booklet only to quickly skim a few pages till one caught my eye.

\- _Intelligence. In Minecraft, the mobs you remembered are not just simple A.I that kills you on sight, they simply have a functioning mind that makes them make their own decisions, have emotions, strategy, and an above average IQ. They can speak our language, read, write, and even understand our own basic trading system to the point they have conducted and learn to work together making large alliances, factions, guilds, and kingdoms._

So this makes them more dangerous to us now more than ever, because now they can conduct plans such as ambushes, massive sieges, even scout the enemy before even going on an all-out attack and many more. The more I thought the more worried I've gotten for Sanchez's chances of survival. I looked over to my weapon and gave a deep breath. _I guess I am gonna have to kill someone in the future… let's hope it's not human._ I began skimming more pages until I heard a sound of spilling water, it kept pouring until a few seconds later the spilling stop and a muffled voice came from the entrance of the cave. My eyes kept staring towards the tunnel that lead to the main entrance of the cave. The hairs on my neck stood up and my handshaking while I reached for my weapon.

With my weapon ready I quietly moved towards the side of the entrance to the tunnel and turned off the flashlight. I kept my cool with small repeated breaths and waited for any signs of a presence. To my surprise a loud thumping noise echoed throughout the tunnel and rang into my ears. I peeked around the cave's wall to get a glimpse of whoever is out there, what I find is a small silhouette of figure treading carefully down the tunnel towards our base. I freeze while still looking at the figure and hairs on my neck still standing tall as ever. The figure passed me without even knowing I was there, I carefully pointed my barrel towards the figured and put my finger in the trigger. _I should the just shoot the bastard and then assemble with Sanchez. It's not Sanchez, he's too small to be that person in front of me. Damn just shoot the little shit._ My finger wasn't moving, it was shaking and I was breathing heavily.

"Shit!" The figure noticed me, it turned towards the entrance and started bolting as fast as possible.

With my quick reflexes I ran at him from his left side and did a full course drop kick towards the figures stomach and the kick pushed to the wall with great force, with this he struck the wall and bounced to the ground like a sack of potatoes. I however was in pain from my own actions, I've never did a drop kick on a person or someone who looked like a person, but I was in pain from falling to the floor. The ache from earlier was now stabbing my back, instead of trying to care for my wounds, I immediately got up and stood over the figure with the feeling of my blood boiling with excitement, I then grabbed the other end of my rifle and butted the figure in the head with stock of the weapon. My ears picked up a male like groan.

"Uhhg…" The figures body fell limp and his body started too stiffened out.

I stood like a statue and watched the figure pass out, I stood there still holding the barrel of the weapon. _I did it, I couldn't believe that I took down a mob, but it wasn't that hard and I got it by surprise to._ _Score one for me I guess._ I then leaned my rifle to the opposite wall the figure and dug in my pocket for Sanchez's light. I shined the light on the figure to find a young boy dressed in a pitch black hoodie with a red hourglass insignia on his back, black sweat pants, black shoes, also a brown satchel strung across his chest and a silver cylinder capsule attached to the front of his satchel. I took the satchel to delve in it for loot, instead a huge screen like text popped in front of me. It depicted my inventory of ten square boxes and the bags contents of six square boxes which had a large drawn map, a compass, a note, flint rocks, and couple of apples within the satchel. My finger shakenly touched the flint rocks on the screen and a bright square icon surrounded the rocks. I softy moved the rocks to my inventory which consisted two stacks of sixty-four oak logs each. I already got the idea how to move inventory due to past experience, but this is different, it feels more real. After I looted everything out of his satchel, my eyes drifted towards his capsule that was hooked to his bag. I unhooked the silver capsule from his bag had a noticed it only had a quarter of water left in its contents. _Looks like this was the sound of rushing water I heard. This kid must be a scout by looking at his physique and light clothing, must have been on a simple mission._ I later turned my attention to the note he had or was given to him and opened it only for it to read.

 _Mother needs a new basket of fresh apples from the perpetual forest, just go through the cave that takes you down there and tread carefully, a small band of the wolven headhunters were spotted not far from the village. I'll accompany or meet you in a bit, your choice._

 _This is bad, this is really bad, this here is really just a boy just helping his mother and it looks like there's a village not far from here, even worse they already know of this cave!_ I looked at the kid, to the note, to our base and then stared at my rifle. _What if I just waste the kid with a bullet to his brain and the villagers will probably blame the murder on a known faction nearby._ It sounded like a plan, but do I have the guts to shoot an innocent kid? _They attacked us first, they wanted this…_ I thought of Sanchez's little speech. I shrugged it off and reached for my rifle. _Let's just get this over with_. I picked up my rifle and pointed it at the kid's head. No one will hear the shot from outside due to the suppressor. _It's okay, you're gonna have to get used to this and remember it's not human so it shouldn't really matter._ My finger was fidgeting like crazy and my grip was getting loose due to the sweat on my hands _. Come on, get on with it and let's end this. I've killed many people online while playing games, but this is also a game called Minecraft and I can't even pull the trigger._ All of a sudden, something inside me snapped and I forcefully closed my eyes while squeezing the trigger.

"Ahh" I screamed from the top of my lungs.

 ***CLICK* *CLICK***

"Wha?" I said in disbelief.

 ***CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK* *CLICK***

 _The hell is wrong with this thing?_ I analyzed the weapon only to find nothing wrong with it. I received the magazine only to find it filled with the right ammunition. _Did I break it by butting it against his head? No, these weapons are meant to stand against beating someone to death with it._ I just realized I've been trembling this whole time, hands shaking, teeth jittering and legs falling weak. I leaned against the wall well putting myself into a fetal position. _Why am I scared to take another one's life, especially one that belongs in a game? Wait, I can't just shoot the kid because the bullet hole will tell the villagers that a human has taken his life. I'm gonna have to kill by sword or strangling him instead of taking the easy way out._ My eyes then glared to my hands that were still trembling. _No, I need a different way out of this mess. Maybe I could try negotiating with him?_

"Cailyn… yo-… you… there?" The boy murmured to himself.

 _Okay, let's try negotiating with him_. I took a deep breath and rested my head against the wall of the cave. I sat there collecting myself and regaining my ability to rethink properly again, the adrenaline in my blood started to fade and I finally got the strength to stand up. I took another deep breath to slow my pace more, I walked over to the boy and shined my flashlight at the child. He's still unconscious, I should make a fire to keep us warm and it is pretty dark in here. So I looked through Sanchez's belongings to trying to find a lighter. He doesn't smoke, so a chance that he has a lighter is rare. _Damn how do I make a fire_? I dug again into his belongings to find anything that would help make a fire, instead I found a plastic bag full of glow sticks. Twenty variants of four colors blue, green, yellow, and red. I cracked about two yellow glow sticks which gladly lit up most of my surroundings, I glanced over to the boy who was still unconscious _. I should move him more into our base_. I walked over towards him while thought of a plan to how I should pick him up. I examined his body for anything loose clothing that I can drag him around with, then his casual breathing stopped and I shined my flashlight in his face again to see if he's still unconscious. In seconds the boy's eyes shot open and kicked me away from him.

"Leave me alone!" He hollered at me while trying to stand.

"Wait, I don't want to hurt you, please listen!" I pleaded putting both my hands in front of me.

-HERE-

He then pulled a dagger from his hoodie and got into a defensive stance. "Just let me go, I just want to go home!"

"Just listen to me and you can happily go home to your mother."

"What! How do you know I have a mother?"

 _Shit, I shouldn't have said that…_ "Well, I know you have one because I read this."

He then took a glance into his satchel and turned towards me. "You robbed me you thief!"

He then charged at me with rage, I quickly evaded to the left and pulled out my pistol. He missed his target and then again took yet another defensive stance. I raised my pistol to the ceiling and fired. The kid's eyes widened and ducked down to the floor. The sound rang throughout the cave and probably the made it outside. I stared down at the child and spoke out.

"Listen to me, I just want to talk to you okay." I finally got his full attention now.

He then backed towards the wall and dropped his dagger. "Please take anything you want human, but please don't harm me." He yelled with tears in his eyes.

"Wait… How that hell do you know I'm human?" I asked surprised.

"What?"

"Yeah, how do you know I'm actually human?"

"Well, most humans use those hand cannons from what I heard and that their really loud." He answered with whimpering in his voice.

"Okay, have you calm down now?"

"Yes, please don't hurt me."

"I won't, you have my promise." I reassured him. "I just want to talk, get answers from you and then you can head home."

"Alright, whatever you want know I'll try to answer it to my best of ability." He sniffed.

I sighed in relieve. _Yes, finally we're getting somewhere_. The boy still looked as if he was standing in his stance, but his will to fight was shattered "First things first, what's your name?"

"Yule."

"What do you do?"

"I'm a night watchmen in my village."

"How many villagers are there in town?"

"About five hundred people overall, but most of our elders and men traveled to the Anglian Empire to serve in the war, now were only two hundred strong." He slid down the rocky wall behind him and sat cross legged. "My father is one of those men and he left his children to care for our sick mother."

"Wow, so those apples are for her uh." _Now I'm feeling sick to my stomach_. "What is her condition anyways?"

"Why do you care about my mother?" He crossed his arms and gave me a cold stare. "You're a human aren't you? You're supposed to gain information on our food supply, number of guardsmen, wall conditions, how many housing, who's in charge and which faction were under."

"What why would I want to know that? " I asked confused.

"Don't play stupid with me, I already know you want to get buddy, buddy with me so you can gain more information on my village and plan a perfect attack strategy on our village." He frowned.

"Woah, I may be human, but I'm not those humans who raid villages, kill innocent people, steal supplies or even take prisoners."

"You have one right now human…"

"Okay, stop calling me human, it's getting annoying." I sat down in front of him with a pistol still in my hand. "Just call me October."

"Okay October, what do want to know about my of village's weaknesses or pretend to give a damn about me and my business."

"You really think I'm gonna pillage your village uh, will consider this and please trust me." This kid is really hard to deal with, this next move should clear everything. "Like I said before, I'm not those humans at the colony, to be honest I'm not from the colony. I come from my home world, the human home world and I just got here not a day ago."

"Bullshit, you humans came from the depths of the Overworld, then started claiming our lands and territories. My father and uncle told me all about you humans in old tales."

"It's the truth, I left my home and came here because of the shitty system I lived in, and when I'm here I feel free." I praised.

"That's a lame excuse and why the hell should I care where you come from?"

"Because I'm not like them!" I shouted in his face. "What can I do I to prove that I'm not one of the humans that will raid, pillage, or siege your village?"

"Will first... you can start by explaining who your comrade is and what he is doing right now?" He smirked at me. "I know for one you're with another human and I hear he has great skill with those thing you guys got in your hand."

"How, do you know that?" He must have been here last night eavesdropping to our discussions. "You were here last night weren't you, spying on us and hearing on our conversations."

"Congrats, you know October you're really a quick headed human." He clapped. "So about your friend?"

"...Damn, he is a friend of mine who traveled with me into this world and we both have different intentions." I got to give some information to this kid in order for me to gain his trust. "I want to live in peace as he wants to bring war and order against your kind."

"I see… so he's a typical human uh, he'll fit right in at the human colony. So where is he now?"

"He went to hunt for food and resources just about an hour ago, but seriously he's a cool guy when you get to meet him." I looked to my IPod to see that Sanchez was gone for almost an hour and a half. "He'll be back soon, give in time you'll already be back home."

"What's his name anyways?" He cocked his eyebrow. "Your friend should have a name such as, oh I don't know; maybe Sanchez rings any bells?"

With eyes widened I choked and couldn't say anything, I was surprised he heard so much information about us, he probably even knows my name. "Yes, his name is Sanchez, but call him Wraith. As you should call me October."

"Alright, I want to believe you have no intentions of harming or capturing me and I should really get back home." He got up dusting his pants. "Any more questions before I go?"

"Do you know that way to the human colony by chance?" I asked.

"Okay… why would you want to know how to get there anyways?"

"I need to meet with the rest of my friends, so we can survive together in your world."

"That sounds nice and unfortunate, I would tell you if I knew the way."

"Do you know anyone that would know the way?" I asked trying to find a way to group up with my friends again.

"I know someone, but they hate humans more than anyone else. I guess trying to find friends is gonna be a hard task." He stood up. "Really should get going before I'm late, anything else you want to know?"

"Here, I just want you to promise that you won't tell your people that were stationed here, please." I gave him back his belongings. "I just want to survive out here and be free from my old boring life. Also you can have this, I don't need it." I handed him a green note pad and a pen as a sign of trust.

"Uh… what is this?" He examined it with a confused look in his face. "Is this one of those-"

He was cut off by a loud feminine voice echoing throughout the cave. "Hey Yule, you down here?" I and Yule both froze while staring at each other, then to the entrance, then back at us again. I whispered to him.

"I thought your mother was ill, why is she here right now looking for you."

"It's not my mother you dolt, that's my sister calling me." He whispered back to me. "You should hide, I'll try walking her out of here."

"Okay, go before she-" I pointed towards the entrance which had tall silhouette of a figure about my height standing in the entrance with glowing red eyes. "Is that her?"

"Yeah… it's her." He sunk his head down.

"Yule!" She was furious. "Mother is waiting for you, come on and you can play with your new friend later." She totally ignored me. She marched forward into the light of the glow stick.

She had a face of a young woman with red murdering eyes that had an unusual look on me. Her hair was tied behind her head making a ponytail. She also wore the same hoodie as Yule, but had a the same patch on both shoulders of an insignia of a red dagger in between two rows off teeth of a white skull with a pitch black background. The writing above it read, _The night is ours_. She wore dark sweat pants with red stripes that traveled from her boots to her waist. The boots however almost reached to her knees and they were black with red lances; they seemed worn out whoever, but still able to use. She had two brown leather scabbards behind her back, which held two blades. Probably daggers. She then stomped her foot towards me.

"Hey, sunshine stop eyeing me up and tell me who you are." She pointed at me with black fingerless gloves. Yule was standing next to her.

"Just call me October madam." I said politely. "I'm just camping here for tonight with a friend of mine."

"Oh, I see…" She then observed the room of our base. "The names Cailyn and where is your friend?"

"He went hunting about an hour ago." I stood up. "As you can see we don't have any food resources so he decided to go hunting for whatever he could get."

She took a deep breath "...well your friend might be in trouble, seeing how our livestock around here is suddenly disappearing due to a small faction of Wolven Headhunters in the area." She then looked down at Yule. "Why is there a bruise on your forehead?"

I and Yule both looked at each other suddenly. "I got from when… I uh…" He slurred

"He fell from a tree while picking apples!" I jumped into the conversation. "I saw him falling down a tree, he hit every branch all the way down." I laughed awkwardly.

 _ ***Silence***_

"Yule... be more careful next time and next time maybe a nice mob such as he wouldn't have come by to help your sorry ass." She ordered him. "And you, what kind of mob are you anyways? Hard to tell you from that get up."

"I'm a… skeleton and very humbled to meet your acquaintance." I'm totally just spitting shit out of my mouth. "I'm traveling from the Hawkish Order to find myself and my friend a new way of life."

"Well that sounds dandy, but I and Yule should be heading back now." She grabbed Yule's hand and walked down the entrance. She later then ran back to me, then opened her inventory and tossed me three small golden coins. "Sorry for the trouble, but this is my thanks for keeping my little brother in line." She had a soft smile on her face.

"Thanks, have a safe trip home." I smiled back at her.

"So to your friend, he'll need it..." She waved at me.

I stood there for minute hearing the voices of Yule and his sister Cailyn fade as they got farther until it silent. I then sat down and covered my face with both of my hands. _Holy shit… that was something, hell I don't think I'll ever have that kind of experience in my world and man that had blood rushing!_ I sneaked another glimpse at the entrance to find nothing there. _I guess I'm save? No, that kid couldn't actually trust me right? I did spare his life and let him go. He might come back later tonight with a company of his guards to capture us. Damn… now I got to know what's gonna happen now._ I laid on my back facing towards the ceiling.

"A war uh… I wonder what they're fighting for." I said to myself while remembering what Yule said about his father going to the Anglian Empire for war.

Now my train of thought was disturb and going everywhere. I grabbed my IPod hoping the music will calm me down. I hovered it above my face scrolling for a tune that would relieve me of this weird feeling I've never felt before. Sadly I couldn't bare to find one song due to this stress and aching in my stomach. Damn what's wrong with me? I'm I sick, worried, sad, scared, and what the hell is this feeling? I then noticed the time on my IPod.

"Almost two hours now…"

 _One more hour before I begin my search for Sanchez._ I took a new seat at the end of wall opposite to the entrance to the tunnel and laid my main firearm next to me, then my pistol on my lap. I stared at the entrance hoping for three things; Sanchez to come back, Yule to inform me that he's on my side, and my group to find me _. I guess word has spread on mobs that humanity is a huge threat to them. Yule was told myths and theories about us from other mobs who have encountered our kind. I guess now everyone of my kind have crosshairs on our heads. His sister however was a complete airheaded to my lies and believed that I really helped her brother. She even gave me gold for his safety, even though I just gonna take his life not long ago._ _Now that's behind me and I think I've established a bond with Yule. Right now I'm trusting my life to a kid… great._

 ***Yawn***

 _Wow… I'm tired from boredom, imagine I fell asleep right now and Sanchez came back. Boy, he would be pissed off. I'm sitting here twiddling my fingers and he's hunting food for our survival. I must stay up and keep an eye on our base. My eyes feel heavy… I should go get him right now, we'll both hunt from there; well… if he didn't get anything… ahh shit now I've done it…_ My eyelids felt heavy and my body started getting settled in on this hard stone I was resting on. Even though I knew that I had to keep watch of our base. I couldn't just stay up anymore, so in the end I just dosed off into a short but sweet slumber.

I woke up to the sound of someone humming a melody in the background and another sound of two rocks brushing against each other. I immediately tried to arm myself with my pistol, but failed to do so. My hands and ankles were bounded together in some sticky silk. I scanned the room only to find the glow sticks I lit up were gone or probably went out. I still heard the melody and the brushing sound echoing the room, but I couldn't see anything due to the pitch dark cave. The light from the tunnel was dim. _Oh shit, how long did I sleep?_ I tried again to force my way out of the sticky silk, but it didn't budge. I then stood on my knees trying to locate where the sound was coming from. Then out of the darkness two familiar red glowing dots peered towards me. _Is that… Yule's sister?_

"Oh, you're finally up." Again, I knew this voice; _it would have to be Yule's sister… Cailyn?_ "My, my, look at your face, it's petrified with fear, isn't it October."

"Cailyn? Is- is that you?" I nervously asked. "I know that's you Cailyn, speak up."

"How dare you give me an order you runt!" My throat felt a cold, sharp, edgy blade against it. "A mere human like you to give orders to a noble warrior of the Anglian Empire." She then toppled me down and used her body to hold me down. I could now clearly see her red eyes piercing through me. "Now look who's in charge now October."

 ***Cough***

"Wait… S-s-stop… why?" Her body was making it hard for me to breath.

"What's that?" She then began squeezing my neck. "You need to speak up."

 ***Cough* *Cough* *Whizz***

"W-why are you d-doing... this ha- has to-?" I couldn't breathe, she's crushing my neck.

"Oh please spare me that detail." Her grip weakened around my neck. "Well… I guess I could tell you, since these are your final moments." She got off of from me. "Let me tell you in more detail, friend."

 ***Cough* *Cough* *Cough***

I can finally caught my breath with her body off of me. "What do you mean in more-?"

Out of now where, repeated bashing of a hard object hit my head.

"Ahh!" I couldn't shield my head from the repeated head butts I was receiving. "Ow~ Stop it already please!"

"Oh~ I'm sorry, did you fall out of a tree?" She then started laughing. "I'm sure that we Arachnids can easily fall off a mere apple tree, were the best skilled climbers around."

"Wait, you were just playing along?" _She was pulling an act this whole time, she probably knew from the start when I told her that bullshit of a lie_.

Yet another bash to my skull was made. I felt a warm liquid run down from forehead and the pain was like fire to my face.

"Yep, I knew you were human the second I saw you." She's fierce, I also came to believe that she has taken many lives such as me before. "The weird glow stick things on the ground, your supplies didn't seem like they belong in our realm, and the outfit really does tell you apart."

"Please, wait, I get it okay!" I tried standing on my knees again, with intentions of trying to level with her. "I don't want to hurt anyone, I just want-"

-HERE-

I was immediately kicked backed to the ground. "I don't want to hurt anyone!" She shouted at me with her boot on my chest. "You hurt my Yule and you'll probably harm others close to me soon enough." Her boot then gained more pressure on my chest. "You're kind has already taken enough of my friends and family to their graves."

"Ah, please!" I couldn't do anything, but feel the pressure of her boot and my stomach collapsing _. This is it isn't it, my life was cut short because of the errors my kind has done to this world._

"Well… I had my fun, let's end this shall we?" Her eyes then again locked onto mine, with her body again holding me down, and that same blade also against my throat. "You look so cute with that face and I don't think I manage to end you, because… well, you're gonna be the first human life I've ever taken." She said softly.

 ***Cough* *Cough* *Ach***

"R-really?" I asked believing in anything right now.

"Nope." She whispered in my ear, I could sense her motioning the blade about to slice my neck.

Then out of nowhere a bright light shined throughout the cave, I could finally see Cailyn who was equipping a black mask that covered the bottom half of her face. She took a glimpse to the entrance and armed herself with her second dagger.

"Woah Oh! Damn Alex, already trying to find yourself a trophy wife uh." I tilted my head to get a glance from behind Cailyn who was still mounting me. Sanchez stood there with a small orange pistol in left hand and another pistol in his right. "I should have knocked first, sorry for busting your balls."

"Damn… you weren't kidding about you having another friend on your journey." Cailyn said, also the red glow in her eyes faded as she stood up facing Sanchez. "So you're with him I assume?"

"Yes madam, I hope you're not here to cause any trouble." He then gestured his right hand as if he was cupping something. "I just want you to meet someone before we get rowdy." Then out came Yule with the green notepad in both hands.

"Yule! Get out of here now!" She ordered him while pointing back towards the entrance with her dagger. "I told you to keep mother company while I was out!" She slid her mask down to neck, her whole face was visible to us and Yule.

"Cailyn… I-" Sanchez then gave him a signal by waving his right hand in front of him.

"So I was just headed back after a five hour long hunt and manage to find a few rabbits that will be able to eat tonight." He then got four rabbits from his back. Probably tied to his bag. "While I was heading back I find this kid right here, who was also heading my way, and snuck up on to him." Sanchez pointed at my green notepad in Yule's hands. "I see the kid carrying one of my friends green notepad, I thought for a while about the circumstances and well... only Alex would ever give someone their school assignment."

"How did you know that was my assignment?" I asked while finally standing on my knees.

"Oh, Jackson told me." He crossed his arms while still holding the firearm.

"Damn it wraith, code names god damn it!" I shouted at him

"They're more of you!" She then bit her nail. "Tell me right now, how many travelers did you come with or else…" She took an attacking stance.

"Woah, come down gal." Sanchez motioned his hands waving her down. "You want to murder us right or are we gonna settle this like grownups." He then eyed down Cailyn. "While I guess you do look apart, so I'm guessing no?" Yule whoever stood there looking back and forth with a smile on his face.

"What?" She then looked down as if she was examining herself. "Oh, you may be surprised, but Yule here is probably order then both of you. If didn't get the memo we mobs live longer then you fragile humans." She gestured at Yule to speak. "Hey… come on Yule, speak up and tell them your age."

"Sorry… but me and Yule both made a little agreement. I do the talking, Yule however can speak only when I give him an order."

"What!" She eyed at Yule. "How dare you follow orders of the human kind! There nothing but savages, murderers, thieves, crocks, bandits, and all they care about is themselves."

Sanchez nodded his head towards Yule and he gladly. "Cailyn please calm down… there not bad people, their fair and understanding."

"Bullshit!" She quickly dashed her daggers together making sparks. "I've meet enough of their kind and I already know what they want from us, our food, water, village, land, and all of us dead."

"This what I mean!" Yule stepped forward towards Cailyn. "You always have the say in everything and you never listen to me or the rest of our sibling! You never pay attention to what we want, it's always just you and what you want." Sanchez tilted his head towards me. "Just because you're the oldest and you run in one of the highest ranking branches of the Anglian military, doesn't mean you can run and control our lives." Yule stepped even more forward. "This is why I agreed to a human such him here to talk and negotiate with me, and for the record these humans are not part of the human colony or live outside of it."

"Okay, ok, Yule finish it off now." Sanchez asked Yule. "We'll tell you more about our situation later."

"What I'm trying to say is, that these humans don't want war or cause trouble towards us. So please give them a chance to explain their situation to us and maybe they'll help us with our problem."

"If already realized." Sanchez roughly cocked his gun. "This not an option, whether you cooperate with us, or you die right here, right now and leave this world not knowing the future of Yule's safety." He shrugged his shoulders. "Either way, it's a win, win for me."

She gritted her teeth and holstered her daggers. "I swear Yule, when we get home we're gonna have long talk." She then glanced towards me. "You're lucky… I hope you know that."

"What, lucky?" Sanchez chuckled. "Having a girl mounting me, then leaving me halfway through, I'd call unfortunate."

"Don't push it, I'll end your quick for sure…" She said while adjusting her mask.

"Yeah, yeah, sit over there with your brother."

 _I couldn't… no this didn't, what the hell just happened?_ _I was just about to die and this just happened, Sanchez came out of the blue, hell… he saved my life._ I sat there wanting to scratch my head, but my hands were still bound to my back. In my whole life time, I've never thought of someone saving my life. Sanchez of all people saved my life and did it at the last moment before I had a second mouth in front of my neck. I was too much in thought that I didn't notice Yule gently removing the sticky silk.

"There you go, you should be free now." Said Yule. "Good thing I came in time huh."

"Ye-yeah… thanks." I slurred.

"She really messed you up good." Yule examined my face. Probably from the beating I got from my rifle.

"...Yeah, she did."

"Here." Yule handed me his silver capsule full of water and a clean cloth. "Clean yourself up."

"Thanks." I accepted his offer. "I'll be outside."

"Yule, go with him and make sure he cleans up okay." Sanchez ordered. "I need to have a private talk with your sister."

"Yes sir." Yule gladly jumped to the opportunity. "Get along you two."

"I can't promise…" Cailyn said softly. _A voice of an Angel, a heart of a Demon_.

I stumbled towards the entrance with Yule close behind me.

"You need help?" He asked

"What, walking?" I glanced towards him. "Na, I'm just fine."

"Okay…" He sounded unsure.

We made it outside to where Sanchez once hid his bag, the sun however seemed like it was going to set in a few hours or so. I sat against the same tree I sat before, I felt sick pain in my stomach, and I totally needed a warm bed to rest in, not some hard ass stone. The grass I sat under was pretty soft and comforting, like I could finally rest easy without a care in the world. Yule noticed this and took the silver capsule and the cloth from me. He drenched the cloth and stared at me.

"This might hurt so try not to move so much, alright." Yule reassured me. "I've done this a lot with my siblings, there pretty adventurous and they always come home with bruises, scratches, and once a burn."

He gently dabbed the wet cloth across my face, he kept cleaning till the blood and dirt were not visible to him. The pain however was real, my face finally started to burn up and sting. Yule started to strain the water from the cloth and put back in his satchel. He handed the capsule to me.

"Take a swig, you look dehydrated."

"Yeah, thanks." I gladly chugged about half of the capsule. "Oh~ yeah, I needed that."

"You gonna be alright?"

"No, I'm gonna die in an hour or so."

"What?" He sounded concerned.

"Just kidding, I'll live." I chuckled.

"Okay… we should head back now, I think Sanchez should be done talking to my sister."

"No, no, will just rest here for a bit and please don't call him Sanchez, or else he'll frag me for giving you his name." _I know Sanchez would try to extract every ounce of information out of her, before we arrive back_. "He's not done yet…"

"Well… okay, it's your call."

The pain still surged throughout my face, so tried to beat the thought of the pain by nestling against the tree. The breeze I felt in this world hasn't changed at all, it felt cool, calming, light, and this time made a sound of thousands of trees dancing in the wind. _Oh… where in a forest_. My eyes then set on Yule who was leaning against a tree also, he looked towards the sky and probably wondered if saving my life was a great idea. _He did come back to rescue me, trusts us I suppose, his argument with his sister was pretty intense and now I'm feeling sorry for knocking him out earlier. I did pay the price anyways_. Yule turned towards me.

"So what do you think of our world so far?"

"What?" I asked not remembering what he said.

"Is our world great, is it boring, or just like your world?"

"Oh, well… It has character?" I honestly don't really know of this world yet. "I don't know… I need to see more of it to give you a proper answer in the future."

"Alright, well how about the people?"

I eyed him down with a serious look on my face.

"Okay… how about… I don't know what to ask you." He put his head down

"How old are you really?"

"I'm about nineteen years old, why is that a concern for everyone."

"Your nineteen, but you look… don't mean to offend you at all, you look like a kid."

"Were Arachnids, we live long lives, but our body frames are short. They're only few members of our mob kind are born to be tall and those ones are forced to become great warriors." He was cupping a fist. "Out of five of my siblings, my sister was granted those genes and she now believes that her role is to run our family."

"Isn't your father in charge of the family?"

"He was until he died in battle." He sat down across from me. "He died from the blade of a human during the war."

"I'm sorry about your father."

"Why are you apologizing? You weren't there during the war, you didn't fight against us, and you're not even a part of the human colony. I've come to accept that you and your friend are good people."

"Woah… thanks, that means a lot you know." I let out a smile. "You could be a valuable asset to us and a trusting friend."

"Thanks." He chuckled.

I lost my mind to the sky and thought. _Yule is a pretty cool guy once you get to know him, he saved my life from his psychopathic sister. Damn… just thinking about her really makes my hair stand. His sister must have gave Yule's siblings hell when they were growing up. I wonder what the rest of his siblings are gonna be like?_ The sky above me started to get crowded with grey clouds that formed out of the blue. _Is it gonna rain?_ I got up feeling aches in my legs, face and stomach _. I wonder if I go a black eye?_ I felt the areas around my eyes only to feel a hint of pain.

"Hey Yule do I have a black eye?" I asked. "I'd be embarrassing walking around with one, even worse a woman made it."

"No, just stop touching it."

"Okay… cool." I was still worried about getting a shiner on one of my eyes. "I'm gonna head back, wait here for a minute."

"Are you sure?" He asked

"I'll be fine, just wait out here."

I walked in the cave and immediately heard yelling echoing down the tunnel, it sounded like arguing, they were faint to make any words out of them. So I moved closer to get a clue of what they're arguing about. I kept getting closer and closer till I could see both of them. Looks like Sanchez made a fire. To my surprise Cailyn wasn't tied or anything, instead she was standing with her arms crossed towards Sanchez.

"You came here and brain washed my brother!" She was standing up pointing at Sanchez, with anger in her eyes. "Now you made him believe that you sinister beings are to be trusted!"

"He trusted us on his own will, please can we get back to the question at hand." Sanchez said with his arms crossed and soft sigh.

"No! You came here and ruined his normal life style!" She stepped forward. _The hell is Sanchez thinking, she'll kill him on the spot._ "I've done everything in my power to make sure he doesn't see a single one of you things again and get involved with the never ending war against your kind!" I just noticed that she was stripped of her weapons and armor, except for the clothes she's wearing.

"God dammit woman, listen to me right now or else I'm gonna have to get your attention by force." I could tell he was losing patience. "I get what you were trying to do for him, but I want you to under-"

"You understand this right now! I and Yule won't be your wonderful cannon fodder, while you guys sit back and watch us get killed!" She was almost face to face with him. "We are a proud family and I won't let you and your runt ruin this village!"

 ***Slap** *

 _Holy shit! Did he really just hit her! Dude he's so gonna get his ass kicked. Oh no… what if Yule-_. I was almost pulling my hair and glanced behind me to see Yule right behind me with his head down. _Oh shit, oh shit, this is bad, really bad. Now Yule will probably send people from his village to come hunt us down for harming his sister!_ I peeked again from the corner to see Cailyn frozen like a statue. Sanchez had his back turned.

"I didn't want to do that but left me with no choice!" He then grabbed her by her the shoulders. "Listen! Nobody's gonna get hurt during this raid! Okay, you have to trust me. Before I was about to tell more details about this raid, I was gonna tell you and Yule's role in this plan of ours." He then pushed her away making her stumble backwards. "But no~ look at me, I'm the older one and I have to take charge of my brother's life, he doesn't know any better. He can't go anywhere without my permission, unless it's a job."

"What of it." She had tears in her eyes, but still giving him an angry expression. "It's my job!"

"No! You've done your part in teaching him from right to wrong, now it's time for him to make his own decisions, he is a grown man now and if you're not willing to accept that then what good of a person to him."

"I'm his sister!"

"He's your lackey!"

"I make sure he's fed, wake him up in the morning for his job, I even-"

"Could stop being in denial, it's really driving me crazy!"

"Why do you need us in your plan anyways? You're better off without us!"

"Woah oh, look at me everyone, I'm in one of the highest ranking branches in the Anglian Empire. So bow down to me as your superior, follow my commands and ." He mocked her. "You flash your rank as if it was royalty, but you show no honor or any signs of skill in your rank. The hell kinda branch of the Anglian Empire do you serve anyways?"

"That is none of your business." She crossed her arms. "You do realize I'm gonna slit your throat after we're done with this right?"

"I wouldn't be surprised." Sanchez sat down. "You know what… forget it, we're not helping you with your problem."

"...What?" She asked confused. "What do you mean you're not gonna help us?"

"That's it I'm done with you people, burn in hell for all I care…"

"You mean-"

"Come on woman, you're a knight or something like that, you can handle a few raiders by yourself." He waved her away. "Go on get the hell outta my sight and never talk to me again."

"What… you can't just back down from a request, you have-"

"A request from a child is an exception, you don't want follow orders then what good are you to me?"

She crossed her arms and glanced towards her equipment.

"Okay, okay, I surrender to you…, but on one condition." She raised her finger to him.

"I'm sorry, are you deaf or something? Seems like you didn't get the memo, but if you can understand this." He marched straight up to face which made him gaze downward toward her and slapped her hand away in the process. "Burn in hell for all I care, I'm not working with a spoiled little girl who wants everything done her way."

"Please, I'm-" Quickly cut off to Sanchez shoving his pistol in her face. "O- oh notch…"

"Shut it you brainless wench, you keep forgetting your place here don't you." He cocked his firearm. "I'm done seriously done with this peace talk bullshit and with you!"

 _No! Forget hiding, I have to do something quick_. I stood up quickly and was just about to reveal myself to them, then I felt Yule tugging on my leather holster. He shook his head giving me a sign not to interfere.

"That's your sister! She's about to get a bullet in her brain!" I whispered.

He shook his head again. "Just watch…"

I sat back down anxious and my breathing paced. _Sanchez for the love of god, please don't waste her._

"N-no wait, please don't kill me! I still have many things to experience in my life, please! I- I'll follow your orders, I surrender to you! Please give another chan- chance…" She was in praying with both hands cupped in the air pleading to Sanchez not to kill her, but what surprised me more was the pathetic look on her face which was in tears… "I don't care anymore if you don't help us, just please spare me!"

Sanchez didn't say anything, instead he acted by pushing the gun more into her face and this forced her to kneel before him, she gradually lowered her head and covered her face. At this point, she wasn't in charge, a threat, or a nuisance to anyone, but she was Sanchez pet from my point of view. She's not the same person that was trying to kill me before, instead she was just a scared little girl waiting for someone to save her and tell her everything going to be alright. She started to cup her hands again.

"Please, father give me strength…" She begged. "Yule, please take care of Haydee, Kilo, Quella and Mother for me please…" She sat there begging till she fell silent with low whimpers, waiting to get executed. I watched hoping for Sanchez to let it go and tell her it was just a joke, it was Yule who planned this and look, the cameras over there too, see. Then we all have a good laugh and go home, but of course this was never gonna happen.

Silent chuckling came from Sanchez. "Okay… fine, I'll spare your fragile little life and only because I don't kill a woman, it's not in my code." He lowered his pistol. "Just remember this, you surrendered to me and you'll always gonna have that pain of giving yourself up to a human…"

"Yes…" She said in total defeat.

"Will have this discussion again later, I'm gonna check if the boys are alright. Oh, one more thing, please wipe your tears before Yule sees the mess I made of you."

"O-Okay..." She started wiping her tears while hiccupping and catching her breath from all the crying she made. "I don't ever want him to see me in this state, never in a million years."

Sanchez strolled towards the entrance. "Could have been worse."

Yule and I silently made our escape outside. The sun was covered by grey clouds who cried down upon us, about a few hours and it would be night time. We both quickly sat back to same tree we were before to shade ourselves from the light trickling rain, we acted as if we didn't see anything and Sanchez later came walking to find us. He came while arranging his shades and putting on a fake smile.

"Hey Al- I mean October, did you clean up alright?" He asked me.

"Yeah… it stings, but I'll be fine." I answered. "How was your talk with Cailyn?"

"It went well… I guess, both of us still don't know the full situation yet. So I want both Yule and Cailyn to stay with us for the night."

"What! You're not serious right? She'll kill every last one of us in our sleep!" I argued. "The same woman who just about kill me is gonna stay the night? This isn't right, I'm not okay with this Wraith."

"Dude, chill and relax okay. I just want her to see us as kind individuals, then maybe she'll keep her mouth shut about us being here." He does make a good point. "Anyways Yule, I want you head back to your home and inform your mother that you and your sister will be training all night."

"That sounds unbelievable…" I commented.

"It's true… Cailyn occasionally takes all of my siblings on trips to train at the training grounds at the Anglian Empire or just at the local barracks here in our village." Said Yule just standing up. "I'll be back in half."

"Okay, make sure you're not followed." Ordered Sanchez. "If you are, just head home and stay put there. We'll keep watch of your sister."

"Yes sir!" Just like that he ran into the cave to take the tunnel that leads up to the higher ground.

Sanchez leaned against a tree across from me and sighed. "What the hell have you gotten us into Alex?"

"What!? You mean me right?" I immediately retorted. "For the record-"

"I'm kidding, I'm just playing with you." He smirked. "Listen alright, your new friends could be a valuable asset to us in finding the human colony. So I want you to be something you haven't been in a long time."

"Kind…" I knew where he was going with this one.

"No, less of an ass hat." He pulled out his pistol. "To be serious, try to forget everything that happened between you and… what's her face."

"Her names Cailyn and no, she was just about to sever my neck into two." I rejected his favor.

"You don't understand man, she is just a woman trying protect the peace in her village. Cailyn believes that we as humans will break that course of peace, so she did what came naturally to her."

"Kill the problem?"

-HERE-

"Yes, she has done this numerous of times I believe." He pondered. "We should go before she decides to go home and bring an army to us."

"Yeah… will talk later right?"

"Yep, will try tomorrow around sixteen, hundred hours."

"I still don't understand what that means…"

"For the love of god, four PM." He held his hand offering to assist me. "Let's go before we catch a cold in this rain."

"Right." I was pulled to me feet in an instinct. "To be honest I'm still not cool about this."

"Yeah, yeah, stick a cork in it, I've had heard enough people argue for the day."

We both walked into the base to find Cailyn glancing at me with a red bruised cheeks and saddened look around her eyes. She gave me a cold stare and then proceeded to hone one of her weapons with a grey stone, probably the size of a brick. She faced the roaring fire with complete determination of making sure the sword was ready to cut anyone down quickly and it was gonna be me or Sanchez. I gathered up my belongings and established a small area for me to relax away from her. Sanchez however didn't move his sleeping bag or even relocate our ammunition box that was next to her. I knew what Sanchez was doing, she probably also caught on what he's trying to do, gaining her trust by leaving him wide open for any attack and treating her like any other person. Sanchez then got one of the four rabbits he caught while hunting all day, he carefully tried skinning the rabbits, but he couldn't skin them. He tried for a minute until Cailyn spoke up.

"You have to put them into your crafting grid which is in your inventory, use your knife on them from there and lastly cook them in a furnace." She instructed. "To make a furnace you need eight blocks of stone."

She taught Sanchez more of the basics of using his inventory and crafting. I also took a mental note of this and followed her step by step program of organizing and advanced crafting. I learned an important thing though, our inventory space is limited to what we wear. We can only have up to five free spaces in our inventory, but if I wear a holster that will count up to more free space in my inventory, and the stuff in my inventory weighs nothing. If Sanchez knew about this at the very start, he wouldn't have hauled all of his supplies for half an hour. So this means now that everything I wear will count to how many free space I can take. It may sound weird at first, but this is something the humans trapped in this world and the mobs have had to deal with their entire lives. _So this is normal to them_. Sanchez on the other hand found it lazy. Soon I'll be time for us to eat the rabbits Sanchez caught.

After a well cooked meal, I just sat there cooped up in my fortress made up of my pile of clothes. Basically all I had to claim that was mine. The whole time I sat there, I was taking these mental notes here and there, but I couldn't concentrate. Probably because a person that was just about to kill me is now gonna be sleeping under the same roof as me. _What a turn of events. I never wanted this… hell what do the popular people call it._

"Ah yes, Drama~ to hell with it I say!" I unknowingly spoke out.

"What?" Both Sanchez and Cailyn said confused.

"Huh… Nothing, forget I said anything." _The hell was that! Am I losing my sanity?_ "I was just repeating a school play I did in high school." I lied.

"I never knew you performed at a school play." Sanchez smirked.

Cailyn turned her head towards Sanchez. "He's lying…" This led my blood starting to boil.

"You don't even know me woman! How in the hell do you know what classes I do, what school I go, or what-" I blurted out and laughed. "Do even know what a school is? No, no, of course you don't."

Cailyn walked back to her weapons and started clean them with a brown cloth. _She was ignoring me_. She faced the fire and continued through until Yule came back. He brought a lantern and carried a large red bag strapped to his back. A smile grew across Cailyn, but faded quickly as Yule walked passed her. In an instinct, Yule reported to Sanchez of his arrival back from the task he was ordered to do, only to get a simple nod from Sanchez.

"What do I do now sir?" Yule asked. Sanchez glanced towards Cailyn and darted his head towards her. Yule got the idea and nodded. As soon Yule went to connect with his sister, Sanchez then waved me over. I lazily got up and walked towards him.

"What'cha need?" I asked.

"Dude… your making this hard on me, I'm only gonna ask you one more time. Can both of you try to get along."

"Is that an-" I was cut off.

"No, it's not an order. I just want you to think about this for a while and I know what I'm asking you be friends with a mob who was just about to kill you, but please take time and consider being friends or else will probably be dead in the later future."

"It will take time I guess… I'll think about when I wake up tomorrow…"

"Alright." Sanchez laughed. _He got the joke._ "Okay, okay, if you do wake up tomorrow, were gonna go scouting a place not far from here, will have a lot of time to talk then."

"What kind of place?" I asked.

"It's that place I found today, but as you can see we don't have much time today." Sanchez tilted his head towards Yule and Cailyn. "So try to get some sleep alright."

"You too and this time make me breakfast in the morning." I asked giving Sanchez a thumbs up.

Sanchez didn't say anything but fell backwards on his sleeping bag and covered up. I walked backed to my little fort. Before I even made it back, Yule walked up to me and handed me a brown rolled up sleeping bag.

"You don't have a place to sleep right?" He asked.

"No, my friend has sleeping bag so I've been sleeping on a rock this whole time."

"Take this spare one I brought."

"Thanks." I smiled knowing I'll be sleeping sound tonight. "Can you do me a favor?"

"Anything to the best of my ability." Yule nodded.

"Can you… uh, watch your sister if does anything dangerous to us tonight?" I whispered to him.

He nodded again and headed back to his sleeping bag which was also next to Cailyn's. I continued to make my way back to my area and happily started to assemble the sleeping bag. I spreaded out the sleeping bag Yule gave me and undressed. The only things I left on were my boxers and socks. I slithered in the fluffy, wool, and somewhat cool sleeping bag. The sleeping bag felt nothing like the ones at home, this one was very unique and feels more real. I felt I was being cradled by puffy clouds of cotton and clouds, knew I would be asleep in no time. I opened my eyes to see the fire slowly dying and the room succumbing to darkness. There was a faint sound of rain that echoed into the cave and I could also hear breathing of the other, but one was deeper and more intimidating. I knew it was Sanchez, he's a real heavy breather when it comes to sleep. For some reason I didn't want to sleep that night, my body wanted to shut down for the night and for some reason my mind didn't. I know why… It was her. That woman was probably waiting for me to fall asleep so she can gut me and hang me above Sanchez to get her revenge for him slapping her. I shook my head trying to not to think about it too much or I won't get any sleep tonight.

So I cleared my thoughts and tried to sum up today's events. _First, I cleaned the base, met Yule by knocking the lights out of him, happily greeted his sister, I slept for a few hours only to be awoken by Yule's sister, almost got my head on a stick, Sanchez then saved my sorry ass, he argued with Cailyn about some plan, ate my first meal in this world, and now I'm sleeping early to get a head start tomorrow. Great, that was my whole day in a nutshell huh. I hope nothing like that happens tomorrow._ Then I was succumbed to a deep slumber which felt like I slept for years.

 **End of Chapter 5**


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